This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 2016.
How to use would to connect with someone about the past.
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Sometimes in English, inserting wood into your statement about the past can create a super powerful connection.
Learn how to do it today with Lindsay and Michelle.
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Expires at midnight on Friday. allersenglish.com slash b-l-a-c-k-f-r-i-d-a-y Lindsay how are you awesome I'm feeling solid today Michelle how are you feeling I'm good I'm good you know what I was thinking about when I was a kid and I don't know it was so much fun when I was a kid I would always play with my brother's friends would you play with like your brother's friends I know you have a brother too I have a brother but it was exactly the opposite so I'm the older sister he's the younger brother so he would run after us and then sometimes I'd be like oh you can't come you know um you know and then he would come in crying to her mom and yell oh geez yeah kids right yeah yeah yeah and you're you're close with your brother yeah i think we're i don't know if we're super close but we have a good relationship you know what i mean like we we're now we're dealing with my aunt's stuff and dealing with our parents people are getting old in our lives and we're so far so good we're doing a really good job of and i trust him and so i i'm very i feel lucky to have a sibling that i trust and love so yay you're close to your brother too aren't you yeah yeah yeah yeah we're close we have a very sarcastic relationship so i yeah you said that it's hard for me to not make a joke about him um that's pretty fun that must have been fun growing up with that kind of yeah back and forth yeah that's cool That's cool.
Yeah, it's a constant.
But Lindsay, did you notice I said when I was a kid, I would always play with my brother's friends.
That's what we're talking about today.
The word would because we have a great question from YouTube, from Naveed Gul.
And I'm excited to get into this today.
We're really going to be focusing on one aspect of the word would.
Lindsay, could you read the question for us?
Okay, let's go into the question real quick.
I'm excited because we're going to get into a little grammar here for our listeners.
And I know our listeners are always asking for grammar, right?
Yes in, with a focus on connection, of course.
Here we go.
This came from youtube and, by the way, youtube is a great place to consume this podcast michelle.
Right right, that's right, go to youtube.
Type in dollars english.
So navid ghoul says hi, you both are amazing.
I've been learning a lot through your videos.
I never thought english learning could be this easy and fun.
Yeah, that's amazing.
I love the way that michelle says thank you.
I don't know.
How do I say thank you?
I don't know.
I have no idea.
Anyway, well, thank you.
Thank you.
I hope that was it.
And Navid asks, please make a video on the usage of wood in the past.
All right.
Good question.
Okay.
So this is a great question.
So thank you for that question.
So guys, head on over to All Ears English 1968 after you listen to this episode.
It's must, should, may, and shall in English.
So another good grammar type episode.
So guys, there are tons of ways to use would in the past, but today we're going to focus on one really useful one.
And then we can do a follow up on other ones as well.
Let us know if you're interested in those.
But this is really wanted to keep it focused, because when I started planning this episode I realized wait, but you can do this, this and this, and this and this.
Let's just focus on it.
Good call.
Good call.
We like to focus on specific things.
So today's episode is just about that one way.
Right, Michelle?
Yes.
So the way that we're going to focus is about something that, like you used to do in the past, something that you commonly used to do, like maybe more you know frequently, like it was maybe a habit or as part of your routine, whatever it is.
So, like my first example, when i was a kid, i would always play with my brother's friends.
So i'm not talking, i'm talking about, like something that was a common occurrence.
Um, i remember being hit in the head many times with a basketball.
That's like you know.
I'm saying that this was a frequent, frequent occurrence.
So what's another example, Lindsay?
Okay, so we do often shorten this to ID right, Michelle?
We should make sure our listeners know that.
But we'll start with wood first.
So here's an example.
She would call her mother every day when she was younger, but now she only calls once a week.
Okay, so she would so a habit in the past.
Right.
Yes.
Right.
Right.
Right.
How often do you talk to your parents?
I talk to my parents pretty much every weekend now.
Yeah.
Okay.
Which, but not every day.
I don't have time.
They don't have time.
I mean, no, but yeah, every weekend feels good for us.
That feels like a good cadence.
So is it like a long catch up then?
Because if you talk, yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Somewhat long.
I mean, there's not always a ton of things to say.
Right.
But yeah, maybe 10 to 20 minutes, but yeah know, the love is there.
So that's what matters.
That's what matters exactly.
Um, so perfect um, or uh.
Here we go every monday.
I'd go watch my sister's softball game, so i would could be shortened to eyed, she would could be, she'd right.
That's the important piece here.
Guys, be careful, because we often do that, don't we michelle, we shorten, i would to hide.
Oh sure Yeah, you need the context, especially when it comes to listening.
You want to be able to catch that when someone says that quickly, when a native speaker says that, right.
Yeah, it's important to be able to catch on to that.
So, yeah, again, this is about routine, common things you did.
You know, like, I don't know why, but why do you think we would use would?
Do you think it sounds different than she called her mother every day?
Or she like oh, when she was a kid she called her mother every day, or every Monday she watched her sister's softball games.
I'm not sure if I have an answer why you would use one or the other.
I'm just curious because it's saying the same thing.
A good question.
Essentially, you could say both, of course.
Wood points a bit more to habits to me.
It is saying the same thing.
She watched her, her sister's softball games and she would watch, but it's like more emphasizing the, the habitual nature yeah, of that activity.
Yeah yeah right, i think so too.
It it makes it seem more commonplace, like it makes it seem more yeah yeah, there's something about it every saturday, or like reflecting in a positive way on memories.
Every saturday, we would wake up at 8 am, we would, we would make pancakes as a family and then we would go for ice cream.
I don't know, just good memories conveying, setting the scene of a habit.
I think Michelle.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I agree.
I like that.
Yeah.
So I mean there are times for the, you know, not using wood, just a regular past simple, good old faithful.
And then there are times to add wood.
So guys, it would be again, wood plus the base verb.
Okay.
Yes.
Good.
Okay.
So that's the construction.
Do we have more examples for that?
Just to make sure we know, we see.
Let's do that.
Lindsay, why don't you do this one?
Okay.
My dog would follow me all around the house when he was a puppy.
That's what dogs do.
I love that.
Or does Kiefer still follow you all over?
Yeah.
These days he's doing that more than he used to as a puppy, actually.
He's like moved into that more.
It's really cute.
How old is Kiefer now?
He's three and a half, I guess.
About three and a half almost.
Yeah.
And when you got him, he was how old?
He was 10 weeks.
Oh my goodness.
Yes.
That's so cute.
They grow up so fast.
They grow up so fast.
Here's another one.
My grandmother would write me a letter every day when I was a kid.
Oh, very nice.
Yeah.
So maybe there's a little bit of a, as I said before, a hint of nostalgia to using wood too.
Mm-hmm. right?
As I said, positive memories.
I think it's a little wistful.
Like that's what I was thinking.
Yeah, I like that.
I like that use.
Whereas if I said my grandmother wrote me a letter every day when I was a kid, that's correct.
But it's a bit more standard.
It's not adding any expression or feeling, right?
It's interesting how, like a grammar that can have essentially the same meaning, can have still a different feel to it.
So it's really...
Really crazy, the language.
It is crazy, but it makes sense because language is human, right?
Human beings are speaking this language.
And that's why we at All Ears English always talk about connection, not perfection.
You can't separate the language from the human beings, right?
And so they're always going to add emotion to things.
That's normal.
Yeah.
Yeah, exactly.
So Lindsay, we're about to do some conversation topics and we're going to try and use the word would.
Good.
Okay.
I'm ready to do that, Michelle.
Let's do it.
Here we go.
All right.
So, Lindsay, tell me about your birthdays as a kid.
Oh, my gosh.
My birthdays as a kid.
Well, a lot of times we would have my party outside, right?
That because I'm a summer birthday.
Yay for Leos.
I think I've been blessed with a summer birthday.
So we would always have like a picnic table with birthday cake outside and i would always have friends over at my house and we would always play games, run around balloons, ice cream, all the good things.
Yeah, all the good things.
Well, i am a winter birthday, so i, my birthdays were the opposite.
We were, i would have my birthday parties inside and we would always just gather a group of friends.
Um, i remember some of my birthdays where um, there was this place called plaster fun house, you know one of those things where you paint, you know a thing.
Um, and then i remember we saw the spice girls movie for one of my birthdays.
But yeah, we would always gather a group and it was fun.
And then when i was older, i would have a lot of my friends sleep over.
So that's what we would do, got it fun yeah, so these.
So there's a hint of nostalgia here, there's a little emotion, there's hinting at something was a habit and it happened every year.
Right, there's a trend, so very interesting, Yeah.
And then, well, this is funny.
I didn't even remember that I wrote this, but what was it like growing up with your brother?
What fun things did you do together?
Well, we would always travel as a family when I was growing up.
We would take trips.
We went to Washington, D.C.
We spent a lot of time in Los Angeles because my aunt lived there.
So we would travel and we would stay in hotels and we would explore big cities in the U.S.
So that was always fun.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
With my brother, well, we would play basketball and he would pretend to be different characters.
He would always put on voices for our stuffed animals.
We would do elections with the stuffed animals.
And also I remember when we would go on vacation if there was an indoor pool.
He would always like carry me around and pretend that.
He was different people and they were competing for who was going to have the best ride at the pool.
So he would like always have a different ride, and I would have to.
I would have to rate the ride and choose whose was the best.
Oh my God.
You had so much fun.
I think you had more fun than I did as a kid with your sibling.
He's funny.
How much older is your brother than you?
He's like six years older than me.
That's the difference.
So my brother and I are only two and a half years.
Where you can get into the fighting zone when there's only two and a half or three years?
You probably cleared that well, cleared that, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
We didn't really fight.
We just played fun of each other.
The age difference is...
Bigger.
Yeah.
Yeah.
When you have like two years, one year, three years.
Yeah.
We fought for sure.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Those kids.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So.
All right.
Fine.
Well, here's here's one more.
What is one of your favorite childhood memories?
Oh, my gosh.
Well, for me it's like I said, it's probably the travel as I said.
You know we would visit um, like my grandmother in Delaware and going around with my parents and just my dad's attitude towards travel was total adventure.
You know, like the world is your oyster.
So we would go together and have little adventures.
So it was that.
What about you, Michelle?
Yeah.
Also travel.
Like my, my aunt lived in New York, so we would go visit her and I loved going to New York.
Uh, we would also go to, yeah.
Um, We would also go to this place called Willow Valley in Pennsylvania and that we would go there with like for New Year's and my birthday is around New Year's.
So we would go there for like with.
I've told you about how we have family friends who were very close with.
So we would all go to this place for for a few days.
And it was just so much fun.
Very cool.
Good memories.
There's nostalgia here.
Right, we're using wood, we're talking about habitual things and there's definitely nostalgia in this conversation.
Yeah, cool.
Yeah, so I mean, I think the main thing is, if someone asks you a question and you're sharing about something that you did often in the past, that maybe you're a little nostalgic for.
Try using wood instead of the past.
Simple without wood, right?
You wanna focus on throwing wood in there.
So I think that this definitely brings about some depth to talking about the past, something a little bit more than Oh, when I was, when I was little, I wrote a song right.
Like, I mean, it's just like a little more.
Yeah.
And when I also think about the more standard way of saying like her grandmother baked cookies for her every Saturday morning, that also feels like something you might write in a book, like a biography.
So it becomes more standard, maybe less personal.
Yeah, a little less personal.
So wood is a little bit more personal.
I think so, yeah.
It's closer to it.
It's a very fine line, right?
We're really just kind of getting into the real nuances of English here.
But I think there is something to that difference there, Michelle.
Yeah.
So, I mean...
We're going to do one last role play in a second, but we wanted to focus on this one unique way so you guys can really remember it and use it very easily to connect with people right away.
Love it.
We need these nuances to connect.
Otherwise, we're just speaking like a dictionary, which no one connects with a dictionary.
Right, Michelle?
No one connects with the dictionary.
I love that.
So, all right, let's do this role play.
So we are childhood friends and we are sharing childhood memories.
All right.
Remember when we were kids and we would run around the lake a million times?
Oh, my goodness.
Yes.
Our parents would get so mad because we never wore shoes.
Yeah, I would go home and I'd have scrapes on my feet sometimes.
I would, too.
Another example of nostalgia telling stories, remembering something that habitually happened in the past.
Sharing that becomes even more powerful.
Oh, my gosh.
I mean when you get together with your friends, like from high school or from childhood.
That is the coolest feeling to say remember when we would do this or we would do that.
There's nothing like that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's great.
It's great.
Um, so Lindsay, what do you, what's the takeaway for today?
Well, do we want to go through the role play real quick, Michelle?
Okay.
Uh, so here we go.
So what did you say first?
All right.
So I said, remember when we were kids and we would run around the lake, right?
Run around.
We would run around again, happened all the time.
We did it together.
And then you said, oh my goodness, Yes.
And then I said, our parents would get so mad because we never wore shoes.
Right.
And then I said, I would go home and I'd have scrapes.
And I used wood twice here.
Be careful, guys.
Yeah, you did.
I'd.
Yeah, that's right.
One snuck in there.
Right.
Because it's unlikely that we would say I would go home and I would have scrapes.
More likely, we're going to kind of conjugate, sorry, punctuate both of those or at least one of them to I'd.
Right.
Yeah, that's right.
Mm hmm um, and then i said i would too.
That's so good.
What's the takeaway?
I think it's very clear the difference here.
Why?
Why would matters?
I mean, this is a grammar episode, but it was so much more than a grammar episode, right like it was a lot just talking about how, how this Grammar actually ties into the human connection.
So I find those things to be really interesting in language learning.
So we focused on one particular way.
Our listener asked us about wood in the past, and we chose one way and we ran with it.
And so I think this is great for connection, great for stories, great for talking about nostalgia.
Oh, super powerful way to build connection very quickly.
And it doesn't mean you have to have this...
25 year history with the person to use this kind of grammar.
It could just be your coworker, your native speaking coworker.
Remember a few years ago at work, we would always do this and now we don't do that anymore.
That could also be powerful, right?
That's right.
So good stuff.
I love that.
Okay, Michelle, time to jump off the mic.
All right.
All right.
Thanks to our listener for that question.
And we'll be back on very soon.
Take care.
All right.
Bye guys.
Bye.
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See you next time.
