Grammar lesson: Technology past and present – past ability

Watch a recording of our live event to support our learners studying grammar: Technology past and present – past ability.

Date

23 January 2024

What is the event about?

In this live lesson there will be an introduction to the topic of technology from the past and present, and what you could or couldn't do with it. Then, you can listen to a short grammar explanation and practise using the grammar yourself.

This live event is a free lesson for learning grammar: Past ability.

Hello Jo,
Please, could you check my task and give me your feedback?
Thank you
************
When I was growing up, we had a dial phone at home.
Although we could call everyone up, we couldn't make video calls like nowadays it happens on the iPhone.
For my birthday, since I got a typewriter, I was able to write stories and all thoughts came to my mind.
Unfortunately, I couldn't undo mistakes because it was not like today's computer, but by practising, sometimes I managed to avoid tapping mistakes.
For sure, writing has become easier thanks to new technologies.

Hi User_1,

Thanks for sharing your writing! I can see that you've really understood the difference between 'could', 'was able to' and 'managed to' in the grammar point - you haven't made any errors with them in your writing :-) Here are some small details that you could change to make your paragraph perfect!

omit 'it happens' in sentence two.

'all thoughts came to my mind' - perhaps you could change to 'many different thoughts' or something similar.

'it was not like today's computer' - 'computers' needs to be plural

'tapping' should be 'typing'

I hope that helps, that you enjoyed the lesson and you'll come along to the next one!

Best wishes,