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Point-of-view lesson

Hello, welcome to the point of view mini-story for the Meddling Mother-In-Law lesson. Let’s get started in our first version of the story, we will start with the phrase “Right now.” Okay? The original story was in the past, so now we’re gonna start with “Right now.”

Right now, there is a girl named Tomoe. She takes it upon herself to change her husband. Tomoe is very picky. She wants the apartment to always be perfectly clean, but her husband is a lousy housekeeper.

One day, Tomoe says, “When you do laundry, please sort the clothes by color.” Tomoe is very polite, but her husband takes this the wrong way. He yells, “Why are you criticizing me? Why do you hate me? I’m not a lousy husband.” Then he jumps up and down, pulls his hair, and says, “I wash my hands of this. I will never do laundry again.”

All right, very good. Now let’s change the story a little bit. We’re gonna start the story with the phrase “Since last April.” Starting in last April, continuing until now. Since last April. Okay.

There’s a girl named Tomoe. Since last April, she has taken it upon herself to change her husband.

Since that time, Tomoe has been very, very picky. She has wanted the apartment to always be perfectly clean, but her husband has always been a lousy housekeeper.

One day, Tomoe said, “When you do the laundry, please sort the clothes by color.” At that time, Tomoe was very polite; but her husband took it the wrong way. He yelled, “Why are you criticizing me? Why do you hate me? I’m not a lousy husband.” Then he jumped up and down, pulled his hair, and said, “I wash my hands of this. I will never do laundry again.”

Okay, did you notice, again, this happens a lot when we begin something with the perfect tenses. We often switch to another tense, often to the past tense. So we talked about one day – I’m sorry, I didn’t say one day. Tomoe has taken it upon herself to change her husband. It means she started trying to change him last April. She has continued trying to change him until now, or until this day where they had the argument. Right, it started in the past; and it continued. So we say, “She has taken it upon herself.” Has taken.

And we say, “Tomoe has been very picky.” This gives the idea that something changed. Maybe in April, something happened; because, before April, maybe she wasn’t picky; but since April, she has been very picky. Starting in April until now. You get the idea. But then when I say, “One day, Tomoe said,” okay, one day is your clue. One day tells you, “Aha, it happened; and it’s finished; so switch to the past tense.”

All right, and now let’s do our little – we can imagine we’re telling a story about the future. Maybe it’s a movie idea. Maybe it’s any kind of story; but that’s going to happen. Here we go.

There will be a girl named Tomoe. One day in the future, she will take it upon herself to change her husband. Tomoe’ll be very picky. She’ll want the apartment to always be perfectly clean, but her husband’ll be a lousy housekeeper.

One day, Tomoe’ll say, “When you do laundry, please sort the clothes by color.” Tomoe will be very polite, but her husband will take it the wrong way. He’ll yell, “Why are you criticizing me? Why do you hate me? I’m not a lousy husband.” Then he’ll jump up and down, pull his hair, and say, “I wash my hands of this. I’ll never do laundry again.”

Okay, in that story, you heard – sometimes it’s hard to hear the future, right? In the textbooks they tell you to say will – will – will – will. He will do this. He will yell. I will go. But, in fact, when we speak, we don’t usually say will. Right? We put – we combine it. We just say ‘ll, ‘ll. There’ll be a girl named Tomoe. Right? There will be a girl. There’ll – there’ll – there’ll be a girl.

One day, she’ll take it upon herself. Right? Not she will. She’ll. It’s a contraction. We’re putting the two sounds together. Tomoe’ll be very picky. Right? Instead of saying Tomoe will be very picky, we can say, “Tomoe’ll be very picky.” Right? We cut off the W I. Instead of saying “wi,” we just say ‘ll.” Tomoe’ll be very picky. She’ll want the apartment to be clean always. Not she will. She’ll.

Her husband’ll be a lousy housekeeper. Not her husband will be. Her husband’ll – husband’ll. Okay? Now this is not correct for writing. With writing, we don’t usually say husband’ll; but in speech, in conversation, especially native speakers, speaking quickly, they will say ‘ll – ‘ll. Her husband’ll be very bad. Her husband’ll be a bad housekeeper.

One day, Tomoe’ll say, Tomoe’ll say – did you hear that? Tomoe’ll say – not Tomoe will say.

Tomoe’ll say – then we switch to the present tense; because it’s a quote. “When you do laundry, please sort the clothes by color.” Tomoe’ll be very polite. Tomoe’ll – Tomoe’ll be very polite, but her husband’ll take it the wrong way. Her husband will take it the wrong way. He’ll yell, not he will yell.

He’ll yell, “Why are you criticizing me?” Etc., etc. Then he’ll jump up and down. He’ll pull his hair, and will say – and’ll say – you could even do that. And’ll say – and’ll say – and will say, “I wash my hands of this. I will never do laundry again.”

So listen for that. You know, the English you get in textbooks, in CD – on CDs, in schools, it’s a formal style of English. It’s also really a written kind of English. So you’re learning to speak written English from these books; and, you know, that’s okay; but it’s not how we really speak. It is not how Americans actually speak.

You’ll never see in a textbook husband’ll. The husband’ll be good. The husband’ll go to the store.

You’ll never see that in the textbook; but, in fact, that’s exactly what we say every day – husband’ll. Tomoe’ll. He’ll. So listen for that when you listen to our movie lessons, when you listen to my commentaries, when you listen to these mini-stories. I’ll try to use this more normal conversation style so you can begin to understand it and use it.

Okay, that’s all. As usual, listen to each version. Then pause and try to tell the story yourself. All of it, using the correct grammar, the correct verb tenses; and try to use the correct pronunciation when you do this future one, especially. Try to use ‘ll – ‘ll – ‘ll instead of will.

Okay, see you next time. Bye-bye.