Can James Blunt help you learn English? (2)

Here’s the second part of ‘Can James Blunt help you learn English‘, from my original blog Engage.cz (September 2009).

The following article is best for students at B2 level or higher:

Thanks to those who emailed me regarding the James Blunt song. Did you have a look at the lyrics of 1973? Did you notice any grammatical structures which you can take from the song?

Repeated actions in the past

Have a look at the verse:

I would call you up every Saturday night,
And we both stayed out ’til the morning light,
And we sang, “Here we go again”.
And though time goes by, I will always be,
In a club with you in 1973,
Singing, “Here we go again”.

Would is a modal auxiliary verb. Students typically learn how to use would in the following ways:

a) Polite offers and requests eg I would like a coke, please.( or in its contracted form: I’d like a coke.

b) In conditional sentences: eg If Sam got married, he would be happier.

But how is would used in this sentence:
I would call you up every Saturday night?

Well, ask yourself this: did they go clubbing just once or many times while they were together?

The song gives you the answer: every Saturday night.

So every Saturday night they would dance together (or they’d dance together).

A few more examples which he might write about his time with her:

We’d dance
We’d have fun every Saturday night
We’d drink and laugh
We’d smile at each other.

So when we can talking about things which we did regularly in the past, we can use would+verb form.

Usually students learn how used to from pre-intermediate level, but in fact native speakers quite often choose would to talk about their past habits, repeated actions, and typical characteristics.

Would and used to
Both can be used to talk about repeated actions and past habits. For example:
When I was young, we used to make sandcastles at the beach.
or
When I was young, we’d make sandcastles at the beach.

However, when we refer to past states:
We used to have a big house.
(NOT we would have a big house).
ie would can NOT refer to past states.

Finally, of course we can also use the past simple:
We had a big house.
We made sandcastles when we went to the beach.

What can you say about the time you were with your first love?
eg We lived in a small house. (past simple)
We used to go dancing in the rain. (used to)
She’d sing and look into my eyes. (would for repeated actions).

In natural conversation we usually choose a range of grammatical structures to avoid repetition.
eg I used to live in Perth. We had a big house right near the river, with a pool and a big backyard. The weekends were best. Our grandparents would come over every Sunday, and we’d play cards all afternoon. It was great fun!

Practice
For my students, here is a writing question similar to what you can expect in the FCE exam:

‘English Adventures Magazine’ is asking readers to write about how they spent their summer while they were young.
Write an article of 180 words describing how you spent your time, and who you spent this time with.

Finally, if you’d like to ask a question regarding this article, please feel free to leave a comment below!

ps no breach of copyright is intended when discussing this song

Originally published on www.engage.cz: September 2009