Lesson Transcript

Hi, everybody. My name is Alisha. In this lesson, I'm going to talk about the differences between "did not," "could not," and "would not" in past tense. I see questions about this topic a lot. So, I hope that this lesson can help you understand the differences between these. Let's get started.
Okay. First, I want to talk about "did not," did not. In this lesson, I'm going to use "didn't," the reduced form of "did not." They mean the same thing. So, "did not" is a simple past tense structure. We use "did not" to provide a basic report of a past event. So, this is neutral. It's not good or bad. We just want to express that something "did not," something did not happen, something "didn't" happen. So, on a timeline, it looks like this. If we imagine this is the past, the star is the present, now, and here is the future. We imagine a "did not" expression as an action here with this X. So, imagine this is the opposite of something that actually happened. So, this is something that did not happen. So, this X marks the action, or rather marks no action here. Okay. So, let's look at one example sentence that uses "did not," and then we'll talk about the next one.
So, in this lesson, I want to compare example sentences and show how with different choices, we have different meanings. So, our first example sentence is this one. "My computer didn't turn on this morning." "My computer didn't turn on this morning." So, this means this thing, my computer, did not do this action. Or, this thing simply did not happen. There was no act of turning on the computer this morning. This is a simple report, a simple past tense event. Okay. So, with that in mind, I want to look next at the explanation of the other two grammar points, and the first example sentence of each. And then, we'll continue on with the rest of the lesson. So, remember, "did not" is a simple past tense structure.
Let's compare this to "could not," could not. We use "could not" to express possibility. This is a possibility structure. We use it to express something impossible. So, when we use "could not," it expresses that there is no chance of something. On a timeline again, from the past to the present, to the future, we can imagine this -- I've marked in blue, we can imagine this as something that was possible, there was potential, or there was maybe a chance for something to happen. But, in the past -- because it's a negative structure, it was actually not possible. Something that was not possible. So, this is different, this one, "did not," is a simple report of no action in the past or no condition in the past. This is a report of something that was not possible in the past. So, let's look at an example sentence that uses "could not" that's very similar to our "did not" sentence.
This sentence is, "I couldn't turn my computer on this morning." I couldn't turn my computer on this morning. So, this sentence uses "couldn't," the reduced form "could not." Here, we see "I couldn't." That means it was not possible for me to turn my computer on this morning. So, this impossible thing was me turning my computer on this morning. So, we wouldn't -- in this sentence, we wouldn't use something like, "My computer couldn't turn on this morning," that does sound a little bit odd. Because it sounds kind of like the computer wasn't capable of turning on. But, because it's a machine we know that it is possible. So, it sounds a little more natural to say, "I couldn't turn on my computer this morning." It wasn't possible for me. So, I was doing something wrong, or there was some problem, some other problem. So, that's why it sounds a little more natural to say, "I couldn't turn on my computer this morning." Instead of, "My computer couldn't turn on this morning." Okay. So, keep in mind, both sentences are grammatically correct but they express different ideas. This expresses it wasn't possible for me to turn on my computer this morning. This sentence, with "did not," simply expresses the report of something that was not true in the past. "My computer didn't turn on this morning." This one expresses it wasn't possible for me to turn my computer on this morning.
Let's look at the last grammar point, and one more example sentence to compare "would not," would not. So, "would not," in this past tense example is used to express habits or willingness to do something. So, there are a couple different situations we use "would not." When we use it to talk about habits, we tend to use it to talk about things that happened a long time ago in the past. Like, when we talk about our childhood experiences, or maybe our experiences with our family at some point. So, they tend to be past experiences in the far, far past. But, there might be some cases where you want to talk about something a habit, or no habit, in a more recent past situation.
We also use "would not" to talk about willingness. So, that means someone wanting to do something, or being able to do something and doing that thing. So, we use "would not" to express that something expected or repeated did not happen, did not happen. So, when we used it like to talk about habits, we imagine this specific habit did not happen at repeated times in the past. So, we can imagine this as like a series of events, yeah. On this timeline again, from past to present to future, we can imagine like an expectation, a habit of some kind, we repeat. Right? We repeat a habit. Like, waking up every morning and brushing our teeth. We expect it happens at the same time every day. Or, maybe a summer vacation with your family. The point is, with "would not," we're talking about no habit or that action not happening repeatedly in the past. So, we have this kind of image to represent this idea. Something we would not do repeated intervals in the past. We also use it to talk about no willingness. So, we have some kind of expectation, or some kind of thought about a repeated action. And, again and again, it doesn't happen.
So, let's look at some examples of this. We'll cover some more later, too. The first one I want to look at is this, "My computer wouldn't turn on this morning." "My computer wouldn't turn on this morning." So, what is expressed here? Again, I have the reduced form, "wouldn't," instead of "would not." This sounds more natural. So, this "my computer wouldn't turn on this morning," sounds like my computer repeatedly did not turn on this morning. Or, we could understand it as like my computer was not willing to turn on this morning. So, using "wouldn't" here sounds like I tried many, many times. Like, I pushed the button on my computer, or I did some other problem-solving things repeatedly. But, I was not successful. This "wouldn't" communicates that feeling. I tried repeatedly to do this thing, and I had some expectation that my computer would turn on, but it didn't. So, "wouldn’t" communicates that.
Again, this is completely grammatically correct as is this one, "My computer didn't turn on this morning." So, what's the difference between these two? This one, as I said communicates that we tried repeatedly to do something, and we had some expectation. But, the first time, it didn't work, the second time, it didn't work, the third time, it didn't work, and so on. We communicate that feeling with "wouldn't." Here, "My computer didn't turn on this morning," sounds just like a report. We don't have that feeling of trying many, many times or having an expectation of the computer turning on. So, this just sounds like a simple report. Again, both are correct. And, same here. This one is also correct. "I couldn't turn my computer on this morning," sounds like it wasn't possible. So, we can kind of assign some different nuance. We can give different feelings, different small feelings to our sentences according to the words that we choose like this.
So, now that we know the differences between these grammar points, let's look at a few more example sentences to compare how the feelings of the sentences change by using different "not" patterns. Okay. Let's start over here again with simple past tense. "My boss didn't meet with me today." "My boss didn't meet with me today." A simple report. Tis thing, meeting my boss, just did not happen. "My boss did not meet with me today." Let's compare to a "could not" sentence. "My boss couldn't meet with me today." "My boss couldn't meet with me today." It was impossible for my boss to meet with me today. So, it could be true my boss couldn't meet with me today, and my boss didn't meet with me today, right? Those things could both be true. This sentence expresses it was not possible. This sentence doesn't express that. It just expresses this thing did not happen, it was not true.
Finally, let's compare to a "would not" sentence. "My boss wouldn't meet with me today." "My boss wouldn't meet with me today." This introduces a very interesting feeling because we use "wouldn't," for like kind of repeated action or to describe willingness. So, this sounds like "my boss was not willing to meet with me." Maybe I asked my boss many times, and my boss said, "No, no, no." So, "My boss wouldn't meet with me today," means that my boss refused to meet with me for some reason. So, all of these sentences again are 100% correct, but they communicate a different feel. Okay.
Let's look at another example sentence. "My family didn't go to restaurants often. We cooked at home instead." So, this is a short story or a short idea about someone's past. Maybe their childhood. Again, a simple report. "My family didn't go to restaurants often. We cooked at home instead." Simple past tense information, simple past tense story. So, this did not happen often. "Going to restaurants," did not happen often. This sounds like a simple report. Let's compare this to "could not." "My family couldn't go to restaurants often. We cooked at home instead." "My family couldn't go to restaurants often." So, this shows it was impossible for my family to go to restaurants often. Why? We don't have it in this sentence, but we can imagine maybe my family didn't have enough money to go to restaurants often. Or, maybe all of my family members had different lives and different jobs, it was difficult for us to go often. Or, maybe we didn't like to go to restaurants, or something like that, or someone didn't like it very much. So, we couldn't go very often. So, we don't have the reason for it. But, the speaker or the writer, wants to express it was impossible to do this often, "We cooked at home instead." Okay. So, again we're expressing impossible here. An impossible situation, impossible condition.
Finally, "My family wouldn't go to restaurants often. We would cook at home instead." So, this sentence expresses a habit. We're using that "would," and in this case, "wouldn't," to express no habit and a habit in the second part of the sentence. "My family wouldn't go to restaurants often." For example, if I'm telling a story about my childhood, I might say, "When I was a kid, my family wouldn't go to restaurants often." So, that's something that did not happen regularly in the past. I follow up with, "We would cook at home instead." In this sentence, I included "would" here, because it shows the action that was habitual, the actual habit that was true for this family in this case. I suppose you could say, "My family wouldn't go to restaurants often. We cooked at home instead." But, including "would" here after the "wouldn’t" shows this was the actual habit. So, it kind of has that nice balance here with "would" and "wouldn’t" together. So, again, this one shows lack of habit, followed by the actual habit.
Okay. Let's look at one more example sentence and compare the differences. First, "After he got sick, he didn't eat meat for a month." After he got sick, he didn't eat meat for a month. Okay. So, in this case, someone got sick. After that experience, he did not eat meat for a month. Okay. Simple report. Someone did this, someone made this decision, okay. It's very clear. He didn't eat meat for a month. This was not true, no meat. Okay. Let's compare this to "could not." So, "After he got sick, he couldn't eat meat for a month." "After he got sick, he couldn't eat meat for a month." This expresses it was not possible for him to eat meat for a month. We don't know why. Maybe his body changed, and it was difficult for him, or he didn't like the taste or the smell, or something like that. We don't know why. But, we simply want to express this was impossible. "After he got sick, he couldn't eat meat for a month."
Okay. Finally, "would not." "After he got sick, he wouldn't eat meat for a month." "After he got sick, he wouldn't eat meat for a month." So, this one reflects willingness, willingness. So, he was not willing to eat meat for a month. Again, we don't know why. Maybe he decided it was best for his health not to eat meat, or maybe there was some other reason not to eat meat. We don't know why. But, the key here is "wouldn't" express his willingness. He was not willing, repeatedly, for a month to eat meat.
So, again we see key differences between these simple report, something that was impossible, and lack of willingness to do something. So, I hope that this lesson introduces some differences between "did not," "could not," and "would not." Also, this lesson covers these two, in particular, "could not" and "would not," in past tense. There are other uses of these grammar points, but I wanted to focus on comparing the key differences between these three in this lesson. Thanks very much for watching this lesson, and I will see you again soon. Bye.

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