How to Talk About Yesterday in English | Learn English Conversation

Grab your coffee and get comfortable! In this episode of The English Coffee Talk Show, hosts Eva and James break down how native English speakers naturally talk about the past. Forget boring grammar textbooks—learn how to frame past events, master irregular verbs, and use natural transition phrases to sound fluent and engaging in everyday conversations. What You’ll Learn in This Episode Natural Time Expressions: Learn how and when to use phrases like the other day, a while back, and yesterday morning to anchor your stories. Storytelling Transition Phrases: Master conversational connectors such as turns out, ended up, I was about to, and out of nowhere to build suspense and keep listeners hooked. Irregular Past Tense Verbs: Pick up common irregular verbs (went, got, ran, woke, forgot, saw, thought, told, left, took, drove) through real conversational context rather than rote memorization. Story Setup Phrases: Discover how to launch into stories using casual openers like long story short, you know what happened?, and I kid you not. ⏱️Episode Chapters & Timestamps 00:00 – Coffee Warm-Up & Morning Mishaps 02:15 – Why Talking About the Past Matters in English 03:40 – Essential Past Time Expressions (The other day, A while back) 04:35 – Dynamic Storytelling Connectors (Turns out, Ended up, I was about to) 06:05 – Irregular Past Verbs in Daily Speech 07:00 – Eva’s Story: The Great Supermarket Distraction 09:30 – Story Breakdown: Vocabulary & Phrase Analysis 11:00 – James’s Story: The Risotto Disaster 14:15 – Story Breakdown: Pacing & Emotional Expressions 16:40 – Summary of Key Takeaways 18:10 – Daily Speaking Practice Homework & Wrap-Up Today's Speaking Challenge (Homework) Think of one small thing that happened to you yesterday or this past week (a quick errand, a cooking mishap, or a funny commute). Practice telling the story out loud using at least three phrases from today's episode: Turns out... I ended up... Long story short... 🔔 Join the Community Subscribe: Hit the subscribe button so you never miss an episode. Notifications: Turn on the bell icon to get notified the second a new conversation drops. Review: If you enjoyed today’s episode, please leave a quick rating or review to help other English learners find the show! #LearnEnglish #EnglishSpeaking #EnglishPodcast #PastTense #EnglishCoffeeTalk #ESL #EnglishVocabulary #DailyEnglish #FluentEnglish