#48- 24 Words for Talking about the Past

Get more English Lessons here:
Visit me on Instagram
Visit me on TikTok
Visit me on YouTube

Transcript

[00:00:00] On this episode of The Real Life English with Gabby podcast, I'll be teaching you 24 words for talking about the past. You'll be learning vocabulary like dig up the past, dwell on yesteryear, a has-been, way back when, and more. Let's get to it!

Hey there. Welcome to The Real Life English with Gabby podcast. I'm your host, Gabby—your fun and friendly English teacher from the one and only New York City. My goal is to teach you phrasal verbs, idioms, and slang that will help you speak English confidently and understand real American conversations.

Are you ready to improve your English skills? Let's jump right in.

Hey, hey, hey. Greetings from New York City. Welcome back to the podcast. For all of my regulars and for all of my newbies—thanks so much for checking out the podcast. I just want to thank you [00:01:00] all so much because the podcast hit 500,000 downloads! I am so excited and happy and grateful to all of you who have listened for the past 48 episodes.

Even if this is your first, your tenth, whatever—it's been so amazing the past year, year and a half that I've been doing the podcast. And my goal was to try to hit 500K before episode 50—and it happened. I'm so happy. Thank you so much! If you love the podcast, please leave a review. I love seeing five-star reviews.

Last time I checked, Spotify had over 350 reviews, so thank you so much. You know, Apple Podcasts could use [00:02:00] a few more five-star reviews. There's so few on Apple! Most of my listeners listen on Spotify. A large number do listen on Apple Podcasts, though, so please, please—I love those five-star reviews because they help. They help spread the podcast to students like you who need it. So again, thank you. I'm very excited. This is awesome.

Okay, let's talk about this episode. My process for choosing topics is very varied. There are a lot of different ways that I choose what topics to do. Usually, I'll brainstorm a list of topics based on questions that my students ask in class or things that I know students have difficulties with. Also, sometimes I'll think of a word that comes up, and then I'll do the topic surrounding it and just make a list of more words.

Of course, [00:03:00] many of you message me about certain topics that you'd like to see me do on the podcast, and so I do those topics as well. Sometimes I'll be watching TV or a movie and I hear some cool words and write them down and then do the topic that's related to it. It's really a lot of fun coming up with ideas for content for either Instagram, TikTok, my courses—it's a really fun process.

This time around, I was having a conversation with someone about the past. I said the expression “back in the day,” and then I was like, “Oh my gosh, I should do an episode about talking about the past.” And, well, that's how it all got here. This episode is talking about the past, and then episode 49 is going to be talking about the future. So it'll be really good.

I actually teach a whole unit on this in one of the classes that I teach at the university. One whole unit is just [00:04:00] talking about the past, because it's a very common topic.

Talking about the past—especially what we call reminiscing—is such a fun thing to do. I know that there are parts of the past that are painful, but there's a lot of happy memories as well. In English, the verb to reminisce is when we talk about positive or enjoyable things from the past.

For some of you—you know the word nostalgia? I'm trying to remember right now. I think a lot of my students told me that it's very similar. Like I think Italian is nostalgia, right? I think French—nostalgie. Spanish? Portuguese? Nostalgia, I think. I'm sorry, Brazilians and my Portuguese listeners, but I think in most languages it's either nostalgia or nostalgie [00:05:00] in some way. And so many of you listening probably know what this means. But nostalgia in English is to think or talk about the past in a longing type of way—like you wish you could go back to that time.

This is a really big topic when we think about all of the generational groups that we are a part of. Do you have this in your culture? Do you have set names for different age groups?

Let me give you an example. In the USA, we call it generations, and usually it's a period of 15 to 20 years where all of those people are one generation.

For example, we have Baby Boomers. Baby Boomers are people who were born from 1946 to 1964. My parents are Baby Boomers, for example.

Then we have Gen X. Gen X is [00:06:00] 1965 to 1980.

Then we have my generation—Millennials. We can also say Gen Y, but we call ourselves Millennials because we were growing up during the new millennium—2000. Millennials were born from 1981 to 1996.

Then we have Gen Z. Gen Z is 1997 to 2012.

And then we have the little ones—Gen A. My kids are Gen A: 2013 to 2024.

And then we have the new generation—Gen B. So my little girl that's in my belly right now, who's arriving summer 2025, she'll be the new generation: Gen B, Generation B.

My generation—Millennials—we love reminiscing and talking about the ‘80s, the ‘90s, the 2000s. But mostly the ‘90s and 2000s, [00:07:00] because like I say, I'm an ‘80s baby, but I'm a ‘90s kid, because I really grew up in the ‘90s and the 2000s. Some people call the 2000s the aughts. It's weird, but I guess it's better than saying the “ohs” or the “two-thousands.”

I follow so many Millennial accounts—or like ‘90s kid, ‘80s kid, ‘80s baby accounts—on social media. And these accounts really bring comfort and joy—to look back positively on my childhood and my upbringing. So much fun. So what generation are you?

All right, before we continue with the episode, I just want to remind you that there's a free study guide waiting for you that will help you remember everything you learned in the episode and give you opportunities to practice even more. It includes the story, the words and definitions, practice activities, and the [00:08:00] transcript. To get the study guide, just click the link in the episode description.

Now let's talk about all the vocabulary that you're gonna learn in this episode:

Once upon a time, go back to, blast from the past, retro, old school, throwback, date back to, outdated, dig up the past, look back on, dwell on, vintage, yesteryear, timeless, flashback to, back in the day, in the good old days, a has-been, way back when, bring up, live through, a thing of the past, ancient history, let bygones be bygones.

Now I'm going to read you a story that has [00:09:00] all of the vocabulary in real-life context. Listen along as I read and try to see if you can guess the meanings of the words in context. After I read the story, we'll review all of the vocabulary, definitions, and examples. Here we go.

Three lifelong friends—Lena, Jamal, and Arjun—decided to take a road trip back to their hometown. They hadn't been there in years. But once upon a time, it had been the place where they spent most of their time. They wanted to go back to the place where they grew up and reminisce about their upbringing. As they drove through the countryside, memories came rushing in. Every small town and roadside diner felt like a blast from the past.

Jamal had recently installed a retro radio in [00:10:00] his car.
 “All right,” Jamal said.
 Arjun: “Let's play some old school music as we drive.”

Almost immediately, their favorite throwbacks started playing and they danced in their seats and sang along.

They stopped at their old high school next. The building dated back to the 1950s, and even though it looked a little outdated, it had a certain charm to it.

Lena smiled and said, “Wow, this place brings back so many memories. I still remember the time we played that prank on the principal.”

Arjun chuckled. “Let's not dig up the past too much. That got us into a lot of trouble.”

They all laughed. It felt really good to look back on those times—not to dwell on mistakes, but just to remember how far they had come and how much fun they had had back then.

Later, they visited an [00:11:00] antique shop filled with vintage posters and records.

“This place is like a time capsule from yesteryear,” said Lena. “Everything here is so timeless.”

They found a record player just like the one Jamal's grandmother had.
 “She used to play this every Sunday,” he said, starting to flash back to quiet afternoons at her house.
 “Those were the days.”

“Yeah,” Arjun nodded. “Back in the day, life felt easier. Those truly were the good old days.”

As they walked through the town square, they saw a faded poster for a singer they once loved.

“Wow,” said Lena. “He's kind of a has-been now though, huh?”

“Yeah,” Jamal agreed. “But wow, we listened to him every single day.”

“Hey, do you guys remember way back when we all had braces?” Jamal asked.

“Ugh, [00:12:00] you had to bring that up, didn’t you? What a terrible time,” said Lena.

They all laughed and pulled up some photos of them with braces.

As the sun began to set, they headed to their favorite neighborhood park. They sat there until it got dark, and then they just talked, sat under the stars, sipped coffee, and told stories.

They had all lived through some really crazy experiences in their lives but had thankfully made it here.

“You know,” said Arjun, “I'm so happy that we've stayed friends throughout the years.”

“Yeah,” said Lena. “We used to fight so much when we were teens, but thankfully that’s a thing of the past.”

“Totally,” Jamal agreed. “Thank goodness high school drama is ancient history. Now I’m so glad that in the past we just let bygones be bygones.”

They smiled at each other and were extremely thankful for their [00:13:00] friendship.

The end.

All right. Let's take a look at all of these definitions and talk about some extra examples.

First up in the story, we have once upon a time. Now, “once upon a time” has two meanings. There's one that's really popular, and then there's another one that is not as popular for English learners, but I used it in the story.

So first, let's talk about the meaning that you most likely know just from various movies or books that you've read—mainly with fairy tales and fantasy stories.

Once upon a time can be used as a phrase at the beginning of a story, often about the past.

For example, we’d say:
 “Once upon a time, there was a small town where everyone knew each other,” or
 “Once upon a time, a beautiful princess lived in a castle.”

In the story, [00:14:00] however, you heard a different use of once upon a time.

This is a phrase used to refer to a time in the distant past, but often with a sense of nostalgia or to emphasize how much things have changed.

For example:
 “Once upon a time, we used to play outside all day without smartphones.”

That's why in the story you hear them say they hadn’t been home in years, but once upon a time, it had been the place where they spent most of their time.

Next up, you hear a phrasal verb: go back to.

Go back to—a three-word phrasal verb. You can also say go back, but in this context, it’s go back to, and this is to return to a place, time, or topic from the past.

For example:
 “I’d love to go back to the summer we spent in [00:15:00] Italy.”

Now here it’s talking about the idea of returning. In the story, they’re literally returning to their childhood homes.

Next up, we have the expression a blast from the past.

Blast from the past is something or someone that suddenly reminds you of the past. It could be a person that you see from childhood, or it could be music or a place that you visit.

But either way, it blasts you—sends a strong sense of nostalgia to your brain and automatically transports you to the past.

For example:
 “Hearing that song at the nightclub was a total blast from the past.”

Next up, the next three words are extremely popular, and these are some of the words that I really was looking forward to teaching because they’re so popular on social [00:16:00] media.

First off, we have the word retro.

Retro is something from the past or something that’s designed to look like it’s from the past.

For example:
 “She wore a really retro dress that looked like she was from the 1970s.”

There are a lot of retro bars, retro places here in New York City that are designed to look like they’re from the 1970s, the 1990s.

We used to have a place while I was growing up here in Manhattan. It was called the Motown Café, and the whole place was designed like it was from the 1950s. It had all the famous singers from Motown, which is like The Supremes, you know—Diana Ross. Very, very awesome place.

Unfortunately, it’s not around anymore, but that was a very retro kind of place.

Next up, we have the expression old school.

Old school means traditional, or we say [00:17:00] old-fashioned—often in a way that’s seen as cool or respectable.

So we might say, “Wow, that’s really old school. That’s from the past.”

An example would be:
 “He’s old school. He still writes all his letters by hand.”

Next, we have the word throwback.

A throwback is something that reminds you of an earlier time.

For example:
 “That photo is a total throwback to our high school days.”

Throwback is one of these words that you’ll see all over social media in regards to music. You might hear it at a nightclub where a song is playing and you're like, “Whoa, what a throwback.”

Or maybe on the internet someone will show clips from a cartoon or a toy that used to be played with in the ’90s, and you’ll say, “Oh my gosh, what an awesome throwback.”

Something that reminds you of the past.

Next, we have a three-[00:18:00]word phrasal verb: date back to.

This is a really cool phrasal verb that I’ve never seen in any textbook. I’ve never heard any teacher teach this before, but for this topic, it is very relevant.

We talk about this a lot with history, archaeology, engineering—when we talk about how long something has existed.

So date back to means to have existed since a particular time in the past.

For example, maybe you’re taking a tour of castles—in Scotland, for example—and the tour guide says:
 “This castle dates back to the 14th century.”

This means that it has existed since the 14th century.

Next up, we have the word outdated.

Outdated means that something is no longer useful. It’s no longer modern, [00:19:00] no longer stylish or fashionable.

Imagine wearing clothes that were popular 10 years ago, but they’re not popular anymore.

We use this a lot for technology. Like if someone shows one of the original cell phones, you’d say, “Oh, this is really outdated. We can’t use this anymore.”

For example:
 “My phone is so outdated it can’t even run new apps.”

Next up, we have the phrasal verb dig up—but specifically in the context of to dig up the past.

This means to bring up or mention or talk about old memories or issues. However, these are typically unpleasant, unhappy memories.

So a lot of the words that we’ve talked about up until now have been positive Dig up the past, is often with unhappy memories that you tried to bury. So imagine some [00:20:00] family drama. That your family has tried to cover , or bury or hide, and then someone comes and tries to bring it back up. We say, why are you digging up the past? 

Next up, we have the three-word phrasal verb look back on. This is to remember and think about something from the past. For example:
 He often looks back on his childhood with fondness—with happiness.
 Look back on, again, just means to remember.

Next up, we have the phrasal verb dwell on. Dwell on—this is definitely a higher-level phrasal verb, probably C2 level, I’d say. This means to think or talk about something too much, especially something negative. It’s like we can’t [00:21:00] let it go—we have to constantly think about it and talk about it because it bothers us too much.

For example:
 Try not to dwell on your mistakes—it happens to everyone.
 We also say, “Don’t dwell on the past,” so maybe something happened in the past and you’re holding onto it, and people are telling you, “Just let it go.”

Okay, next up we have the word vintage. Vintage is a great word in many ways. It can be similar to retro or old school, even throwback, but vintage is a little bit different. Vintage means that something is from the past but it's very high quality, and we often use this specifically for fashion or objects. For example:

If you go to a vintage store, it's gonna sell very high-quality clothes from the past. Like if you buy a [00:22:00] Versace dress from 50 years ago, we would say it's vintage.

Very common to buy vintage cars—this is a vintage lamp, a vintage desk—very high quality, and almost always fashion, furniture, objects, etc.

For example:
 She bought a vintage handbag at the flea market.

Now let’s talk about flea market for a second. A flea market is a place where people sell used goods. If I have a desk that I’ve had and I want to sell it, I can bring it to a flea market.

And a lot of the times, these things are antique or vintage—I can sell it for a pretty high price. Flea markets are very popular here. A flea is a little bug that tends to be in old things, and that’s where the flea market name [00:23:00] came from.

Next up, we're gonna talk about yesteryear.

Now before we talk about that, there’s another expression I want to teach that’s in this sentence:

In the story I said, “This place is like a time capsule from yesteryear.”

Now a time capsule—normally, this is a physical container or capsule that we put things in. For example, a lot of people do time capsules in high school or middle school where they will take a capsule container and put in their favorite things. They'll put in a newspaper clipping from the day, and then they'll open it 20 years later—25 years later. And it’s really fun.

It's a big tradition in American culture. A lot of people do it at their weddings—they'll make a time capsule with the newspaper headline from the day that they got married, things from their wedding, [00:24:00] and then they'll open it on their 20th anniversary, 25th anniversary—very, very cool.

Some Americans do it for their children when they’re born, and then they give it to them on their 18th birthday—very, very cool.

So this place is like a time capsule from yesteryear.

Now, yesteryear is a combination of “yesterday” and “year,” but it doesn’t mean the year before. Yesteryear is a very poetic, literary way to refer to the past—especially a time that people remember in a positive way. So it's not a specific amount of time in the past. It’s just something that is often in books, poetry—and it's used to romanticize or make something seem really beautiful from the past.

For example:
 The festival celebrates the music and styles of yesteryear.

Next up, we have the word timeless.

Now you know that in English we have things [00:25:00] called prefixes and suffixes. Now, suffixes are at the end of a word and they change the meaning of the word—and often they change the type of word.

Some suffixes don’t change the meaning—they’ll just change a word from a noun to an adjective, to an adverb, etc.

But the word -less, L-E-S-S—when you add it to the end of a word—it means “without.”

So timeless means without time, specifically meaning that something never goes out of style, never becomes old-fashioned. It’s just always popular, always good.

For example:
 The beauty of her music is truly timeless.

Next up we have the three-word phrasal verb flash back to.

Flash back to means to suddenly remember something from the past. A [00:26:00] flashback is similar. When we use flash back to, we're just using a specific time. Flash back to is to suddenly remember something.

Okay, so:
 I flashed back to my first day of school when I saw that old photo—it’s like immediately I was transported back to that day.

Now when I read this in the story, I said that he flashed back to quiet afternoons at his grandmother’s house, and then he says:

Those were the days.

Those were the days is just an expression that we use to reminisce about the past. Those were the days. Those were amazing times—I wish I could go back there.

That's very similar to the next two expressions we have: back in the day and in the good old days.

So first, let me talk about in the good old days.
 In the good old days is very similar to saying those were the days. This is a nostalgic phrase, and it’s specifically for [00:27:00] remembering a pleasant time in the past.

For example:
 High school life was simpler in the good old days.

And then we have back in the day.

Back in the day is a casual phrase that’s used to talk about a time in the past.

Back in the day, we used to rent movies from a video store.

Remember that? We had Blockbuster and Hollywood Video here in the United States, and it was so much fun. Usually Friday, Saturday night, we would go there, rent some movies for the weekend, and then bring them back on Monday or Tuesday.

Next up, we have the expression a has-been.

This is a really cool expression. This is a person who used to be famous at one time, or used to be successful, but they are no longer relevant or important in society.

So someone who was really big, really [00:28:00] famous for a specific time—but then they kind of just faded into the background, and they never did anything else successful again.

For example:
 He used to be a big star, but now he’s just a has-been.

It’s a kind of rude term, but it’s very common in American society.

Next up we have the expression way back when.

Way back when is a casual way to refer to a long time ago.

For example:
 That restaurant opened way back when I was a kid.

Sometimes you can say:
 That restaurant opened way back when—while I was a kid or when I was a kid.
Sometimes you can repeat when twice.

Next up, we have the popular phrasal verb bring up.

This is to start talking about something, to mention something—especially a topic from the past.

For example:
 Please don’t bring up the argument we all had [00:29:00] last week.

Next up, we have a really cool phrasal verb.

This is also a phrasal verb that I’ve never seen in a textbook—I’ve never really heard it being taught in classrooms—and that is to live through.

Live through is to experience something difficult or historic and survive it.

For example:
 My grandparents lived through the war.
 They lived through the economic recession.

It’s like you survive, okay? And it has to be something historic or difficult.

One day, you’ll be able to tell your grandkids:
 I lived through Michael Jackson’s life and death, for example.

That’s a very entertainment-based example, but this is a really cool phrasal verb.

Next up, we have a thing of the past.

This expression means that something no longer [00:30:00] exists or it's no longer common.

For example:
 Using paper maps is a thing of the past—it is not used anymore.

For example, using paper maps is a thing of the past. It is not used anymore. Sometimes we use paper maps here, like for emergencies—if the internet goes down or GPS doesn't work—but for the most part, they're a thing of the past.

We have the expression ancient history. This is something that happened a long time ago and is no longer important. Don't worry about that. It's ancient history now.
 Ancient means very old. Now, ancient history. We can actually talk about ancient history—like my son right now is studying ancient history for his history subject—but when we use it casually in conversation, it's something that's not important anymore.
Don't worry about our argument. It's ancient history. I forgot all about it. It's not important.

And lastly, we have a really cool [00:31:00] expression that most students are like, "What the heck is this?" — Let bygones be bygones. Now let me just say, we will never ask what a bygone is alone. Nobody knows. Nobody cares. The expression let bygones be bygones is all we care about.

And this means to forget past arguments or problems and forgive. It's kind of like, let something of the past be something of the past. The actual word bygone, that's what it means—things of the past, bad things. So when we say let bygones be bygones, it's like let things from the past stay in the past. Don't bring them here.
 So it just means to forget past arguments or problems and forgive.
 For example: We've had our disagreements in the past, but I think it's time to let bygones be bygones.

That concludes all 24 [00:32:00] vocabulary words and expressions for talking about the past. As usual, your homework is going to be to use as many of these words as possible so that you can truly remember them.

After studying the study guide, I want you to take five to ten words every day—whatever you're capable of—and try to use them in conversation, in a written message, maybe in a journal. However you decide to use them, it will help you remember them for the future so that you can use these naturally when you speak English.

Well, that's a wrap for today's episode of The Real Life English with Gabby podcast. Be sure to download today's study guide so that you can learn how to use this vocabulary confidently.

If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to subscribe for more weekly adventures in English [00:33:00] learning. Also, I'd love to hear from you, so please leave me a review. Thanks so much for tuning in.