Telling a story

English course · B1 · Intermediate · 6 short videos

Goal — I can tell a story about something that happened to me.

Grammar — past continuous + past simple, when / while, stative verbs (know, want, like)

Words — waiting, steal / stole, run after, miss, suddenly, power cut, lights, torch, keyboard, presentation, No way!

The videos of this unit

The craziest morning ever.

Mia You won't believe what happened this morning.

Priya What?

Mia I was waiting for the bus when a dog stole my sandwich.

Priya No way! What did you do?

Mia I ran after it… and missed my bus.

Priya So that's why you were late!

Useful expression You won't believe what happened. — Say it to start a surprising story.

Ben's presentation has a small problem.

Ben I was working on the presentation when the lights went off.

Ben While I was looking for a torch, the cat sat on my keyboard.

Priya Ben… your presentation is four hundred pages of “j”.

The word that makes every story exciting.

Word suddenly /ˈsʌdənli/ — Quickly and when you don't expect it.

Stop saying “I was knowing him”.

Common mistake ~~I was knowing him very well.~~ → I knew him very well.

Why: Some verbs are states, not actions: know, want, like, believe, need. They don't usually take -ing.

Think… or walk?

Word wonder /ˈwʌndər/ / wander /ˈwɒndər/

Astuce (wonder) : “wonder” has the sound of “cup”. “wander” has the sound of “hot”.

Story quiz: 4 questions!