Simple, Compound, and Complex Sentences

Today we learned about three different sentence types: (1) simple, (2) complex, and (3) compound sentences.  In this video, Jennifer Lebedev reviews these three types and adds one more: (4) compound-complex.

The Past Progressive

Today we learned how to use the past progressive (also called the past continuous) tense. Here's a very nice video that shows you many examples of this tense. It's about seven minutes long.

Song: Send in the Clowns

This is one of my favorite songs. It was written by Steven Sondheim and sung by Judy Collins. Sondheim wrote the song for the musical play A Little Night Music. The words describe how two people in love are not free to get married. You can use it to review questions--or just enjoy it!

Note: "ought to" means "should."

001 Grammar Review: Present and Past Tenses

Jennifer Lebedev has some more advanced videos about verb tenses. Can you understand these?

1. Overview (7 minutes)

2. Simple Present (12 minutes)

3. Present Progressive (17 minutes)

4. Simple Past and Past Progressive Part 1 (13 minutes). We haven't studied the past progressive yet, so let Jennifer introduce this tense to you.

5. Simple Past and Past Progressive Part 2 (9 minutes)

Present Progressive for Future Meaning

Here's one little British English video about using the present progressive to talk about planned future events.

Here is another explanation about using the present progressive to talk about planned future events. This one is also in British English.

Song: I'm Gonna Miss Her

Here's a song by country singer Brad Paisley. It's about a man who loves fishing more than he loves his girlfriend!  Notice the pronunciation of -ing as 
/ɪn/ (instead of /ɪŋ/); this is common in certain kinds of spoken English.  Also, the word lookee instead of look is a typical of certain kinds of speakers. "Catch hell" means that she will be very angry with him. "I've got a bite" means that he has a fish on his line.

Here are the lyrics:

"I'm Gonna Miss Her"

Well, I love her,
But I love to fish.
I spend all day out on this lake,
And hell is all I catch,
But today she met me at the door (and)
Said I would have to choose;
If I hit that fishing hole today,
She'd be packing all her things,
And she'd be gone by noon.

Well, I'm gonna miss her
When I get home,
But right now I'm on this lake shore,
And I'm sitting in the sun.
I'm sure it'll hit me
When I walk through that door tonight.
Yeah, I'm gonna miss her
Oh, lookee there, I‘ve got a bite!

Now there's a chance that if I hurry,
I could beg her to stay,
But that water's right,
And the weather's perfect.
No telling what I might catch today!

So I'm gonna miss her
When I get home,
But right now I'm on this lake shore,
And I'm sitting in the sun.
I'm sure it'll hit me
When I walk through that door tonight.
Yeah, I'm gonna miss her
Oh, lookee there, another bite

Yeah, I'm gonna miss her
Oh, lookee there, I’ve got a bite.

Talking About the Future: BE + GOING + TO + VERB

Watch this very short video on Real English. The top video has no captions; the bottom video has captions. Watch either, or both.

In the Learn American English Online series, there is a 5-minute lesson on BE + GOING + TO + BE. It includes some information about pronouncing GOING + TO.

This 3-minute video gives examples of using BE + GOING + TO + VERB, BE + VERB + ING (present progressive) and VERB(s) (simple present) to talk about the future, and shows how they are all a little different. It is more advanced.