Summary
Highlights
The video introduces the 'past of the verb to be' as a crucial topic in English for expressing experiences and adventures. The key words for the past tense are 'was' and 'were'.
Before diving into the past tense, the video reviews the present tense of 'to be' (am, is, are) in affirmative, negative, and interrogative forms with various examples for singular and plural subjects.
The instructor provides examples of affirmative sentences in the present tense, such as 'I am Karen', 'You are Mike', 'We are super cool', 'They are a little rude', 'He is my boyfriend', 'She is at work', and 'It is my dog'.
The video demonstrates negative sentences in the present tense, including both full forms and contractions: 'I'm not an actress'/'I am not an actress', 'You are not my friend', 'You are not strangers to me'/'You're not strangers to me', 'We are not ugly'/'We're not ugly', 'They are not nice'/'They're not nice', 'He is not my cousin'/'He's not my cousin', 'She is not my aunt'/'She's not my aunt', and 'It is not my bird'/'It's not my bird'.
The lesson covers how to form questions using the present tense of 'to be', emphasizing that the verb comes first: 'Am I your superhero?', 'Are you my friend?', 'Are you my family?', 'Are we in the school?', 'Are they handsome?', 'Is he doing something?', 'Is she working?', and 'Is it playing with the ball?'.
The video explains that 'was' is used with 'I, he, she, it' and 'were' is used with 'we, they, you' (both singular and plural). It then provides examples of questions and answers using 'was' and 'were'.
Examples of questions and answers in the past tense are presented: 'Were you in California?' (Yes, I was), 'Was the weather okay?' (No, it wasn't/was not), 'Were you and your cousin on vacations?' (Yes, we were), 'Were your parents there?' (No, they weren't/were not), 'How long were you away?' (I was away for a week), and 'How was your vacation?' (It was excellent).
The instructor highlights the importance of contractions in spoken English, specifically 'wasn't' (was not) and 'weren't' (were not), for sounding more natural and fluent.
The video introduces common verb collocations, providing examples for 'do' (do my homework, do chores, do the laundry, do exercise), 'go' (go online, go shopping, go dancing, go bowling), 'have' (have a party, have a good time, have a lot of fun, have a meeting), 'take' (take a day off, take a video, take a trip, take the bus), and 'make' (make a phone call, make the bed, make a bike ride), distinguishing 'do' from 'make'.
A practice section encourages viewers to ask questions to others, followed by a short conversation illustrating the use of present and past tense 'to be'. The video concludes by reiterating the main points: the past forms 'was' and 'were', and the present forms 'am', 'is', and 'are'.