Students are often a little shocked to hear that, but truthfully, there isn't enough time.
Most experienced IELTS teachers will tell you that you should first study General English until your grammar is good enough to get the results you need, and then prepare for the IELTS. In an exam preparation course, you need the time to learn exam techniques and mountains of new vocabulary. Trying to learn the English grammar system at the same time is too much.
I basically agree with this. However, there are times in exam preparation when it would be useful to discuss a few grammar points ... if only we had more time!
So what's this page about, then?
Excellent question =)
On this page, I'm going to add some grammar points which relate to videos and texts on other parts of the site. The first one relates to the Amanda Palmer video.
AMANDA PALMER:
USING "WOULD" TO TALK ABOUT THE PAST
This is a great video about music, trust, giving, receiving, and loving what you do in life. If you want to watch the whole thing and do some vocabulary exercises related to it, you can go to this page
USING "WOULD" TO TALK ABOUT THE PAST
This is a great video about music, trust, giving, receiving, and loving what you do in life. If you want to watch the whole thing and do some vocabulary exercises related to it, you can go to this page
_________________________________________________________
GRAMMAR FOCUS
The grammar exercises below mostly focus on the second section (from 02:50 to 04:40)
In this section of the video, Amanda says:
- "After all of our shows we would sign autographs and hug fans."
- "I would track down local musicians and artists."
- "People would bring home-cooked food to us all over the world."
In these sentences, "would + infinitive" has a similar meaning to
"USED TO and "WOULD" FOR PAST EXPERIENCE
I'm sure you've studied "used to" before. We use it to talk about:
- things that happened repeatedly in the past (e.g. your habits)
- things that were generally true about you in the past
(e.g. your likes and dislikes)
- things that part of your daily life in the past (e.g. where you lived)
In each case, "used to" suggests that something has changed in your life, so the thing you're talking about is only part of your past, not part of your life now.
Match these three examples to their meanings:
- "I used to play football every Saturday."
- "I used to hate cucumbers."
- "We used to live in a terrible house with almost no windows."
For one of these functions, we can also use "would" + an infinitive, and we often do.
_________________________________________________________
BACK TO AMANDA
Look at Amanda's sentence again:
"People would bring us home-cooked food to us all over the world."
This refers to
_________________________________________________________
SO, THE RULE IS:
For things that happened repeatedly in the past, we can use
- "used to" + infinitive
- "would" + infinitive
For things that were generally true or part of our lives in the past (but didn't involve repeated actions or events), we use "used to".
_________________________________________________________
MORE EXAMPLES FROM THE VIDEO
Complete these other sentences from Section 1 and Section 2:
a. We _______ ________ this beautiful moment of prolonged eye
contact ... and we _______ sort of _______ in love a little bit.
b. My eyes _______ ________ "Thank you, I see you", and their
eyes _______ ________ "Nobody ever sees me. Thank you."
c. We would get harassed sometimes - people _______ ________
at me from their cars "Get a job!"
d. I would track down local musicians and artists, and they _______
________ up outside of our shows, and they _______ ________
the hat, and then they _______ ________ in and join us on stage.
(to turn up = to arrive)
_________________________________________________________
COMPARING THIS TO OTHER USES OF "WOULD"
Look at these sentences with "would"
a. "If I could have one super power, I would choose the ability
to breathe under water."
b. We hated our maths teacher at school. She would give us so
much homework that we could never finish it."
Which one is about:
- something that happened many times in the past?
- something which has never happened, and is in your imagination?
From this, we can see that "would" + infinitive has more than one use.
If you're not sure, just look at the context.
_________________________________________________________
ANSWERS
- In these sentences, "would" + infinitive has a similar meaning to "used to".
- "I used to play football every Saturday."
= I did this repeatedly in the past - my habits have probably changed.
- "I used to hate cucumbers."
= generally true in the past - suggests that you like them now.
- "We used to live in a terrible house with almost no windows."
= part of your daily life in the past - probably not true now.
- "People would bring us home-cooked food all over the world"
refers to something that happened many times in Amanda's past.
- Other sentences from the video
a. We would get this beautiful moment of prolonged eye contact ... and
we would sort of fall in love a little bit.
b. My eyes would say "Thank you, I see you", and their eyes
would say "Nobody ever sees me. Thank you."
c. We would get harassed sometimes - people would yell at me from
their cars "Get a job!"
d. I would track down local musicians and artists, and they would turn up
outside of our shows, and they would pass the hat, and then they
would come in and join us on stage.
- Other uses of "would"
Sentence (a) is about something which has never happened. We're
just imagining here.
Sentence (b) is about something which happened many times in the past.
_____________________________________________________
(NOTE: if you're not sure what an infinitive is, go to this page. )
GRAMMAR FOCUS
The grammar exercises below mostly focus on the second section (from 02:50 to 04:40)
- "After all of our shows we would sign autographs and hug fans."
- "I would track down local musicians and artists."
- "People would bring home-cooked food to us all over the world."
In these sentences, "would + infinitive" has a similar meaning to
"USED TO and "WOULD" FOR PAST EXPERIENCE
I'm sure you've studied "used to" before. We use it to talk about:
- things that happened repeatedly in the past (e.g. your habits)
- things that were generally true about you in the past
(e.g. your likes and dislikes)
- things that part of your daily life in the past (e.g. where you lived)
In each case, "used to" suggests that something has changed in your life, so the thing you're talking about is only part of your past, not part of your life now.
Match these three examples to their meanings:
- "I used to play football every Saturday."
- "I used to hate cucumbers."
- "We used to live in a terrible house with almost no windows."
For one of these functions, we can also use "would" + an infinitive, and we often do.
_________________________________________________________
BACK TO AMANDA
Look at Amanda's sentence again:
"People would bring us home-cooked food to us all over the world."
_________________________________________________________
SO, THE RULE IS:
For things that happened repeatedly in the past, we can use
- "used to" + infinitive
For things that were generally true or part of our lives in the past (but didn't involve repeated actions or events), we use "used to".
_________________________________________________________
MORE EXAMPLES FROM THE VIDEO
Complete these other sentences from Section 1 and Section 2:
a. We _______ ________ this beautiful moment of prolonged eye
contact ... and we _______ sort of _______ in love a little bit.
b. My eyes _______ ________ "Thank you, I see you", and their
eyes _______ ________ "Nobody ever sees me. Thank you."
c. We would get harassed sometimes - people _______ ________
at me from their cars "Get a job!"
d. I would track down local musicians and artists, and they _______
________ up outside of our shows, and they _______ ________
the hat, and then they _______ ________ in and join us on stage.
(to turn up = to arrive)
_________________________________________________________
COMPARING THIS TO OTHER USES OF "WOULD"
Look at these sentences with "would"
a. "If I could have one super power, I would choose the ability
to breathe under water."
b. We hated our maths teacher at school. She would give us so
much homework that we could never finish it."
Which one is about:
- something that happened many times in the past?
- something which has never happened, and is in your imagination?
From this, we can see that "would" + infinitive has more than one use.
If you're not sure, just look at the context.
_________________________________________________________
ANSWERS
- In these sentences, "would" + infinitive has a similar meaning to "used to".
- "I used to play football every Saturday."
= I did this repeatedly in the past - my habits have probably changed.
- "I used to hate cucumbers."
= generally true in the past - suggests that you like them now.
- "We used to live in a terrible house with almost no windows."
= part of your daily life in the past - probably not true now.
- "People would bring us home-cooked food all over the world"
refers to something that happened many times in Amanda's past.
- Other sentences from the video
a. We would get this beautiful moment of prolonged eye contact ... and
we would sort of fall in love a little bit.
b. My eyes would say "Thank you, I see you", and their eyes
would say "Nobody ever sees me. Thank you."
c. We would get harassed sometimes - people would yell at me from
their cars "Get a job!"
d. I would track down local musicians and artists, and they would turn up
outside of our shows, and they would pass the hat, and then they
would come in and join us on stage.
- Other uses of "would"
Sentence (a) is about something which has never happened. We're
just imagining here.
Sentence (b) is about something which happened many times in the past.
_____________________________________________________
(NOTE: if you're not sure what an infinitive is, go to this page. )
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