FINISHED vs UNFINISHED ACTIVITIES

What did you do yesterday?
> I went shopping with my best friend then we ate a delicious pizza.

What have you done today?
> I have worked and I have seen some YouTube videos.

Listen what other people have done in the morning and did yesterday. (The interview is in the morning... so the question is: What have you done this morning?)


Simple Past

• The simple past is used to talk about completed/ finished actions in the past.
• The simple past is often used with expressions that refer to points of time in the past. For example:

at	4 o'clock/2.12/the end of year/Christmas
on	Tuesday/19th March/the 21st/New Year's Day
in	January/1999/the 1990s/summer
no prepositions	yesterday/yesterday morning/last Monday/next April/a few days ago/ the day before yesterday/when I was young

Present perfect simple

The present perfect is often used with prepositions or prepositional phrases indicating periods of time that have not finished yet.
Some time expressions used are: today, this morning, this month, this year, so far, this milenium, over the last few weeks, for the last 3 weeks, up to now, etc.

This week we have received a lot of enquiries about our new web site.
(The week has not finished yet, and there may be more enquiries.)

If we are speaking about a situation after one of these time periods, we use the simple past because we are referring to a period of time that has finished.

Have you seen John this morning?
(It is now 10.30 in the morning; and the morning has not finished.)
vs
Did you see John this morning?
(It is now 3.00 in the afternoon; the morning has finished.)

In level 5, you also checked that present prefect is used to talk about general life experience. In this case, it is often used with the words ever and never .
Example:

Have you ever worked abroad.
(i.e., In all your life up to now?)
I have never been to China.
(i.e., Not in all your life up to now.)

TASK

What did you do last week with your friends?
What have you done this week with your friends? Do you have any plans in mind that you haven't done yet?

IMAGINAY/ UNREAL SITUATIONS AND POSSIBLE CONSEQUENCES

Most of us are quite poor, aren't we? :S but let's imagine that we have the chance to become rich...

If I won 10 million dollars I would travel around the world and I would buy all my clothes in Paris!

What about you?.. What would you do if you won 10 million dollars?

Here is a video with some people who answer this question.


When we have an IMAGINARY or UNREAL CONDITION we express it in past:
IF I HAD A LOT OF MONEY (but I don't have :( ) ... IF I LIVED IN ANOTHER COUNTRY (but I live in Mexico) .... IF I COULD SPEAK ENGLISH PERFECTLY (but I'm still studying)
And to express the POSSIBLE RESULT of this imaginary situation we use WOULD/ COULD + simple form or WOULD'NT /COULDN'T+ simple form.

Examples:

If I had a lot of money, I wouldn't work and I would enjoy life!

If I lived in another country, I would live in Japan but I couldn't eat delicious Mexican tacos.

This structure is called second conditional and we use it to express an unreal situation, dreams or hypothesis and their posible imaginary results.

To form it we need two clauses: the condition + the result (the order doesn't affect).

The condition: if + simple past
The result: would/ could + simple form


Affirmative: I would get a better job if I spoke three different languages.
Negative: If I worked near home, I wouldn't be so tired commuting long hours.
Question: What would you think if I sang out of tune? If you saw somebody sick, what would you do? If you didn't have money to go home, would you ask for money in the streets?



LINKS TO PRACTICE

http://www.better-english.com/grammar/cond2.htm
http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/conditional-sentences/type-2/exercises
http://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/conditional-sentences/type-2/exercises?02
http://web2.uvcs.uvic.ca/elc/StudyZone/410/grammar/2cond1.htm


TASK

If you found a magic lamp what would you ask for?