This English Lesson 29 is focusing on the Past simple.
Past simple of to have is irregular. Let’s see how to form positive, negative, and interrogative statements!
Positive form of “to have”
I had, you had, he had, she had, it had, we had, you had, they had
Negative form of “to have”
I had not, you had not, he had not, she had not, it had not, we had not, you had not, they had not
I hadn’t, you hadn’t, he hadn’t, she hadn’t, it hadn’t, we hadn’t, you hadn’t, they hadn’t
Subtitles sous-titres 字幕 Untertitel उपशीर्षक sottotitoli 字幕 napisy na filmie obcojęzycznym legendas субтитры subtitulos altyazılar
hi students welcome back I’m Julia and
I’m here to welcome you to lesson 29
today is all about the simple past again
we will be focusing on the past simple
of to have so if you’re enjoying our
videos do not hesitate to post your
comments below and give our videos a big
light if you have doubts if you want
extra feedback or support please use the
comments section also to ask your
questions and share your own examples in
the meantime I’m going to always
encourage you to use the subtitles try
and turn them on and off have them in
English have them in your own language
and turn them off all together this is
really important I have so many students
that are reluctant to turning the
subtitles off I understand it is quite
difficult when you start but the minute
you turn them off you learn to listen
and more attentively and you find your
own strategies to survive when you don’t
know all the words so I think it’s a
great of a challenge and you learn how
to understand the gist understand the
main idea without panicking without
saying oh well I don’t understand that
word so I can’t understand that’s not
true so really practice throughout each
of these lessons and trust me you will
really see your level skyrocket so
really focus on that listening
comprehension is key when you’re having
a conversation if an accent is quite new
it’s normal that at the beginning that
represents a challenge that’s very
normal and if you don’t know the word
trust me it’s not uncommon even for very
advanced level students they don’t know
all the words by their so so that’s
always going to happen but don’t see it
as a problem to see it as a small
challenge that you can very easily
overcome you can always figure out the
main idea just by looking at the general
context and the voice and the
verbal communication when in the real
world having an everyday conversation so
those are my tips always try and repeat
out loud try and take notes
repeat the videos play around with the
different options of subtitles all that
is very important and please follow the
step by step of each lesson with
dialogue vocabularies grammar questions
and answers and the recap the recap is
where you and I coincide again to run
through the highlights of today’s lesson
so at that point you should feel more
comfortable more confident with the
vocabulary and the grammar of the day if
by the end of the lesson during the
recap you feel that the content is still
quite fresh still quite new don’t worry
just read the text and go and watch the
video again maybe the following day
because I think when my learners in
class forget the word when they memorize
it when they learn it again it actually
sticks so when you watch a dialogue you
learn the vocabulary if you’re
comfortable with everything and the next
day you feel like you have forgotten
half of it it’s normal it just means
that you have to repeat it again and
then once you’ve forgotten and repeated
you will see that all of a sudden you
have memorized it forever okay so those
are a few teachers tips you will have
many more in every section entitled
recap video and many more grammar tips
obviously in the grammar section of each
of these videos okay guys well I’m going
to let you study now and I’m going to
see you later on for the recap part of
the video bye bye
The past simple of to have is
I had.
you had.
he, she, it had.
we had.
you had.
they had.

I had.
you had.
he, she, it had.
we had.
you had.
they had.

1/English Sentence Practice
Peter pays a compliment. That is very good Jeanne. When I was at school we had lessons in pronunciation.
We had to learn a poem and we had to say it in front of the class. English pronunciation is difficult even for the English
There are lots of sounds in English that do not exist in other languages. I had problems with the “TH” sound.
In fact, I had to go on Saturday mornings to have lessons. Sara has very good pronunciation,
I bet you had no problems when you were young. You’re right I had no difficulty. I had a very good upbringing.
My elder sister had elocution lessons. She had the patience to teach me. I was lucky.
So remember Jeanne, English is not phonetic. Excuse me what is phonetic again? Can you explain me?
You mean can I explain, to you. You do not want me to explain what you do or why you do it.
You want me to explain to you “what is phonetics”.
Phonetics is when there is a direct correspondence between symbols (letters) and sounds.
In English, the same letters can have different sounds. For example: Though, Tough, Through, Thought.
Their spelling is similar but they sound very different. English is not phonetic.
English Vocabulary with the past simple of to have.

2/Vocabulary Practice
- I had to.
- to pay a compliment
- lessons in pronunciation
- We had to learn a poem.
- in front of the class
- even for
- There are lots of sounds
- to exist
- in other languages
- to have problems
- the “TH” sound
- on Saturday mornings
- I bet you
- when you were young
- You’re right
- I had no difficulty.
- a good upbringing
- elder sister
- elocution lessons
- have the patience
- English is not phonetic
- to explain to someone
- what you do
- why you do it
- direct
- correspondence
- symbols (letters)
- sounds
- Though
- Tough
- Through
- Thought
- the spelling
- similar
- to sound different
English Grammar

Past simple of “to have”.
Past simple of to have is irregular. Let’s see how to form positive, negative, and interrogative statements!
Positive form of “to have”
I had, you had, he had, she had, it had, we had, you had, they had
Negative form of “to have”
I had not, you had not, he had not, she had not, it had not, we had not, you had not, they had not
I hadn’t, you hadn’t, he hadn’t, she hadn’t, it hadn’t, we hadn’t, you hadn’t, they hadn’t
Interrogative form of “to have”
had I? had you? had he? had she? had it? had we? had you? had they?
had I not? had you not? had he not? had she not? had it not? had we not? had you not? had they not?
hadn’t I? hadn’t you? hadn’t he? hadn’t she? hadn’t it? hadn’t we? hadn’t you? hadn’t they?
When to use “to have” in the simple past? More examples
1/ completed actions – when it is over
The kids had an early night last night.
I had a nice lunch break.
2/ when I focus on the duration of an action:
They had a two-hour power cut.
He had a headache for 2 hours.
3/ when an action has happened once, never or several times in the past:
I had a headache every time.
They had homework every week.
4/ for a series of actions in the past:
We bought groceries. We cooked. We ate.
5/ for facts or generalisations in the past:
For a twelve-year-old he had a large vocabulary.
These criminals had troubled backgrounds.
Signal words / adverbs of time that go with this tense:
1/ LAST
Last year
last Wednesday
last time
2/ IN
in March
in 2000
in the winter
3/ WHEN
when he was a teenager
when I had a cat
when that happened
4/ OTHER SIGNAL WORDS:
yesterday
the other day
English Speaking Practise

Questions and Answers
Last year, did you have the flu?
Yes I had the flu last year.
Did you have your exam last week?
Yes, I had my exam last week.
Did he have a large vocabulary?
Yes, he had a large vocabulary for a 10 year old.
Did you have any difficulty with the journey?
No, I had a good journey.
Why did you learn the poem?
I had to learn the poem at school.
Did you have any problems learning the poem?
Yes, I had a few problems, it was very long.
Was she a good teacher?
Yes, because she had patience.
Can you pronounce though?
No, I cannot pronounce though.
Did you talk to your cousin?
Yes, I had a talk with her this morning.
Has Sarah good pronunciation?
Yes she had lessons.
Lesson 29 recap with Julia

Hi guys! Welcome back!
Let’s do, together, the recap of lesson 29.
This is already the penultimate lesson of level A2.
We’re almost at the end of this course! I hope you’ve learned a lot!
Today what I’d like to do is just the vocabulary of today’s dialogue together for pronunciation practice.
Then what we could do is just a bit more phonetic transcription together.
If at this point you are slightly more interested in IPA (the international
phonetic alphabet),
I will point you towards the videos that I have already made and that will teach you everything you need to know in about 10 videos (I think I made about 10 videos).
So if at this point you feel comfortable transcribing,
just so as to remember the correct pronunciation of words,
then I highly recommend you take a
look!
So we’re going to play with that with a few difficult words which seem very alike when written but when pronounced are very very different.
So we’re going to do that! And then we’ll do a grammar review, as usual, just to run
through your grammar point of the day
which happens to be the verb “to have” in
the simple past or past simple.
So let’s get started!
Let’s start off with the vocabulary list which I’ve taken from today’s dialogue.
So just repeat after me or take notes or try and transcribe the word phonetically.
I’m sure that at this point you’ve developed your own strategies or techniques.
Do as you wish but I always recommend if you still haven’t embraced this habit of mine which is to transcribe words phonetically, please give it a go!
I know that it can sometimes be confusing because then you’re tempted to write the word phonetically and no longer how it is supposed to be spelt.
I know that it can be confusing but long term you will see the benefits!
Let’s start off with the word “to deserve”
Here you will see the phonetic transcription.
a compliment
lucky
to explain
Here you can say “to explain something”
But if there’s another person involved – if you want to say “I’m going to explain this”
“I’m going to explain this to someone”
There’s someone involved in that sentence: you have to add the
preposition.
This common mistake has been highlighted in the dialogue.
One of the characters actually makes that mistake and gets corrected.
Please practise that! Make some sentences, write them down.
Could you explain that to me?
Could you explain this to me?
Could you explain this grammar point to me?
He explained that to him. And so on…
Just really practise! I know it sounds
repetitive and maybe boring.
But it’s a mistake that we hear a lot. So do try and avoid it.
Before we move on to pronunciation,
I would like to incorporate a new element in today’s recap, which is the
word “homophone”. It has two pronunciations.
You can choose. You can call it a “homophone” or a “homophone”.
Essentially it’s just words that sound the same.
They have the same pronunciation – identical pronunciation.
But they can have a very different spelling or a different origin.
And they generally have a different meaning.
Today’s lesson comprises one word which is “patience” – “to have patience”.
Are you a patient person?
“patience”
I’m bringing this up because sometimes I use the dictation on my computer, the auto dictate and it gets confused with this kind of word.
For example “patience” sounds exactly the same as “patient” in plural form (“patients”).
We’re going to run through a list of
homophones together now.
Just so that you realise how many words
we’ve already learned together in these 29 lessons
and how many of them can be confusing when writing because they sound exactly the same.
The first word we have seen is “ad” (an advert, an advertisement) can be
confused with the verb “to add”.
The preposition “for” can be very easily
confused when writing with the number “four”.
We have seen the verb “to eat” in past simple (“ate”) which is easily
confused with “eight” (the number).
We have seen the verb “to buy” which is
easily confused with two other words: “by” ( preposition) and “bye” (Goodbye).
You have also seen the word “hour” which which you can easily confuse with “our” (possessive determiner / possessive adjective) which we’ve also seen together
The personal pronoun subject “I” can easily be confused with “eye”.
The verb “to know” is easily confused with “no”.
The word “right” you can confuse with “to write”.
If at this point in this exercise you’re not
completely comfortable with spelling words aloud like this, I recommend that
you go over the alphabet.
I think that the confusing letters
for people are still the vowels (a, e, i, o, u)
This may seem childish but what
you can start off by doing is just reading the alphabet out loud, just
practising them. Then spell your name.
Just practicing that and then just
taking random words until you are 100% certain that you can spell a word
I think that’s so important.
I know that those are the things that we take for granted.
It’s like: “what’s your email address?”
How do we say: “@”?
How do we say: “GMAIL?”
How do we say: “.”? (dot) Do practise all these things.
It’s a good way of reviewing spelling and punctuation.
Just make sure that you know all the letters of the alphabet because at this point you should know it!
I know it’s not something that we focused on particularly
Do spend some extra time working on that by yourself.
Let’s carry on now with the list of
commonly confused words, just because they sound the same.
Let’s look at some more! This one I already pointed out once but I actually didn’t tell you that they were called “homophones”.
We saw this before:
they’re = they are
their (possessive)
there (demonstrative)
Those three words are quite common.
I think that even English people misspell them when texting in haste or writing a comment under a video when they’re focusing more on the content.
They make spelling mistakes. That’s quite common.
We have some more examples:
to, too, two
Don’t confuse them all!
This one we’ve seen: whose and who’s.
“WHOSE” is a relative pronoun and it’s also a question word (an interrogative pronoun)
to not be confused with “WHO’S”
(WHO IS?). Who is this? Who’s this?
Whose is this? I’m writing down these examples. Please practise them!
There’s another word which I often see
misspelt, once again in comments and so on.
“YOU’RE” (you are) and “YOUR” (possessive). Your dog.
Let’s carry on with more vocabulary which I found in today’s dialogue which funnily
enough is related to pronunciation.
Let’s read these words out loud
together!
Let’s really focus on not only enunciation but also stress pattern, really focusing on the right syllable, the right sound in each word.
a sound
phonetic
phonetics
to correspond
a symbol
a letter
the spelling
different to
As promised in previous videos , I’d like to highlight the difference between British English (“different to”) and American English (“different from”).
Once again choose your favourite.
It is different to this. It is different than this.
British English or American English?
similar to
a poem
in front of
Now let’s run through these words that look very similar but are pronounced very differently.
I’m going to insist once again on the
phonetic transcription or a variation.
It doesn’t have to be perfect but it has to
help you remember the correct pronunciation of each of these words
So let’s start off with this word: I’m going to be quite cheeky here. I’m going to let
the word appear, leave a second or two, then I will pronounce the word, and then the phonetic transcription will then appear.
though
through
thorough
In the United States they pronounce this word: “thorough”.
So some British people and even sometimes myself, we pronounce this word: “thorough” – we’re influenced
by the American culture.
In England we would say ” thorough”. So you can choose how to pronounce it.
throughout
thought
trough
tough
I hope you enjoyed this exercise.
It’s quite good fun if you want write them down, mix it up.
First of all of course check the definition so that it’s not just phonetics. Try and link it to the meaning maybe with an illustration, a picture, or just a
definition or even a translation.
I know that we’re at a point now where we can’t just learn words in context.
I do highly encourage you to translate this. What’s this in my language? Okay! Done!
Then you actually memorise it sometimes
quicker. Then use that English word in an English sentence of course.
First of all recognise it, know how it’s pronounced, know the meaning, know its
translation, and then start using it in sentences.
Let’s move on to the grammar review of today which is the verb “to have” in the simple past.
I’m just going to give you a handful of sentences here.
Please complete each sentence with the correct form of “to have” in the simple past which we know is “had”.
So it’s just really to familiarise yourself more with the adverbs or the time expressions which work with the simple past.
It’s not so much for you to learn how to conjugate the verb because as I said before it’s just “HAD”.
So it’s quite straightforward.
So just repeat the sentences to get used to hearing that tense with these time
expressions
Last year I had a long holiday.
Last week we had two English classes.
We had class together last time.
Last Wednesday I had an English class.
When she was a teenager she had a dog.
When he was 21 he had a car.
Yesterday I had the day off.
That’s it for today guys!
I’ll see you next time in our next recap
video!
I hope you enjoyed today’s lesson!
Please apply all the strategies, all the
tips that I gave you!
I look forward to seeing you seen in our next.
Exercises Lesson 29
Comprehension Practice
Vocabulary Practice
Grammar Practice
