1.3 Paco remembers a story a man told

Icono IDevice Listening activity

In the title of this section you can read a sentences that the narrator said at the beginning of the topic, when he introduced what Paco was doing before remembering the story the man told: Paco remembers a story a man told. Obviously, what he means is that Paco remembers in the present the story the man told in the past, when he was in the United States.

Watch the following videos (first video A, then B) to work on this difference. Pay as much attention as possible to present and past tenses.

 

A


B

In video B, Beryl talks about the changes in the Isle of Man (Great Britain) and her town, Onchan. Whenever she refers to the present situation of the isle or the town where she was born she uses the Present Simple Tense. When she refers to how the isle and her town were in the past, she uses the Simple Past.

Read the questions of the Self-assessment part below, then watch the video again to try to answer them. Watch the video as many times as necessary to answer the questions.



Icono de IDevice de pregunta Pregunta de Elección Múltiple
By UKPhoenix79. GNU Free Documantation Licence

Choose the correct answer. Remember to watch the video as many times as necessary!

1. According to Beryl, when was the first picture shown taken?

  
a. In the 1930s
b. In the 1920s

2. How old is Beryl?
  
a. She is 82 years old
b. She is 80 years old

3. Until when did Manx (people from the Isle of Man) have good tourist seasons on the Isle?
  
a. After the Second World War (WWII-[1939-1945])
b. After the First World War (WWI [1914-1918])

By MethoDan. C. Commons
4. Is the Isle of Man a holiday island any more?
  
a. No, it isn't
b. Yes, it is

5. How long ago was the picture of the Main Road in Onchan taken?
  
a. It was taken 50 years ago
b. It was taken 100 years ago

Icono IDevice Further knowledge
There are lots of exercises on the web to improve the use of English verb tenses. If you click here, for example, you will be able to do an easy exercise to practice the use of the Present Simple and the Past Simple tenses. And here you'll find an interesting exercise in which you will have to correct mistakes in sentences in the Past Simple tense.

Icono IDevice Important
used to vs. usually

As you should have noticed, we use used to to talk about past habits and states which are now finished (e.g. Paco used to wear a mac in England).

It is very important to know that used to has NO PRESENT form, nor progressive, perfect, infinitive or -ing forms. It can only be used to talk about the past. To talk about present habits and states we use the Simple Present tense accompanied or not by an adverb of frequency such as usually or normally, among others (e.g. Paco (usually) wears a mac in winter).

By the way, used to has nothing to do with to get used to something/doing something (also, to get accustomed to) or to be used to something/doing something (also, to be accustomed to).

Icono IDevice Further knowledge
Pratice the use of used to and to be/get used to by clicking here, first, to get a file with activities. Finally, here not only will you find the grammar explanation of these verbs but also lots of interesting and entertaining exercises on the subject.

That's more than enough about verb tenses in the topic. However, remember that you must master their form and use. Now, it's time to work a bit on adjectives. In the Further knowledge part above, have a look at the phrase lots of interesting and entertaining exercises. Both interesting and entertaining are adjectives ending in -ing (present participial adjectives). In next section we will study these adjectives since we frequently get wrong with them. Come on! Let's go on to next section!
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