Category: Grammar

Present Perfect Continuous

Post author By topshelfboss
Post date

Present Perfect Continuous

Form

The present perfect continuous (or present perfect progressive) verb tense is made up of a subject, the auxiliary verb (or helping verb) have, the past participle of the verb Be, and the present participle (~ing form) of the main verb of the sentence. It looks like this:

Subject	Auxiliary Verb	Been	~ing form
I/you/we/they	have	been	walking
he/she/it	has	been	running

To make the sentence negative, add a not between the auxiliary verb and the been.

To make a yes/no question, put the auxiliary verb before before the subject.

To make a WH question, first make a yes/no question, then add the question word at the beginning of the sentence. Don’t forget to add a question mark at the end.

Function

There are three ways to use the present perfect continuous:

Instead of the present perfect
Actions that started in the past, and are still happening now
Actions that have an effect on something now. We often see the effect, but we are interested in the action. The action may or may not be finished.

For more information and some practice exercises, start at the top of this page.

Hello! This lesson is about the present perfect continuous. You might hear some people talk about the present perfect progressive; it’s just a different name for the same verb tense. I learned present perfect continuous so that’s what I’m going to call it. It doesn’t matter, it’s the same verb tense. First of all, we’re going to look at the form, which is how to make it. Then we’re going to look at the function, which is how to use it. Then, at the end, there’s a short quiz I’d like you to try. Let’s get started. We’ll start by looking at the form: how to make the present perfect continuous. So for positive sentences, we start with a subject: I, you, we, they, and then he, she, it, and an auxiliary verb. Notice how he, she, it has has as an auxiliary verb, and I, you, we, they has have as an auxiliary verb. After that, we use been, and then the present participle, the ing form, so in this example, I put walking. We can use contractions. We can put the subject and the auxiliary verb together, so instead of I have, we can say I’ve; instead of he is, he’s. Okay, let’s keep going. For negative sentences, we start with the same thing, and we just slide this over, and this is where we put our negation; this is where we put our “not.” Again, we can use contractions: I, you, we, they haven’t been walking; he, she, it hasn’t been walking. For yes/no questions – we’ll go back to the beginning – for yes/no questions, I just switch and I put the auxiliary verb first, and the subject afterwards. Now, I should have put a capital H at the beginning here and here because this is now at the beginning of the sentence, but I didn’t. Anyway, I’m sure you will. Now we’ll take a look at WH questions. WH questions, we start where we just left off with yes/no questions, and all we do, is we just add the question word at the beginning. So that’s the form of how to make the present perfect continuous. There’s nothing to understand; it is what it is and there isn’t very much to remember, just a few rules. Okay, now let’s take a look at the function – how to use the present perfect continuous. There are three main uses of the present perfect continuous. First of all, we can use it instead of the present perfect. So, when we use the present perfect, we often – not always, but we often – have the option of using the present perfect continuous, depending on the situation. It doesn’t always work. Let’s take a look at some examples where it does work. So, present perfect, which in this case, we can call the present perfect simple, and the present perfect continuous. He’s worn that hat a lot this week. He’s been wearing that hat a lot this week. There is no real difference between these two sentences, other than emphasis. With… when we use the present perfect continuous, we’re emphasizing the action we’re, we’re emphasizing the wearing of the hat. They’ve worked hard to complete this project. They’ve been working hard to complete this project. Again, there’s a slight difference here, only an emphasis that I’m really focusing on the fact that they really have been working to get this done. He’s lived in London for five years. He’s been living in London for five years. Here I’m going to say there’s really very very little difference between those two. She’s taught here since 2012. She’s been teaching here since 2012. Again, no real difference. Some verbs that work well in this situation: feel, live, work, teach, and enjoy. So the next use of the present perfect is actions that started in the past and that are still happening now. She’s been writing all day… and she’s still writing now. That action has continued up until now. We’ve been driving for three hours and even, if I don’t say this part here, the part that’s in brackets, even if I don’t say that part, people will understand that we’re still in the car; we’re still driving now. He’s been studying for six years… and he’s still studying. And the last use of the present perfect we’re going to look at is that actions that have an effect on something now – we often see the effect – but we’re interested in the action. The action may or may not be finished. So we see one thing, we see the effect, but really what we’re focusing on, is the action that caused the effect. Again, examples often help. Why are your hands dirty? I’ve been working in the garden. Okay, so we see the effect – the dirty hands – but we’re interested in the action what caused your hands to be dirty? Well, working in the garden. Whew! I’m tired; I’ve been having trouble sleeping. So here is the effect – the fact that I’m tired now, but what caused it was it was that I ooo! I’ve been having trouble sleeping. And one more example: I’ve been thinking about what you said. So here is… I’ve been thinking, okay? That would be the action, but we’re interested in the effect. I kind of want to know: Okay, so what happens now, okay? That’s kind of… this would be the introduction to talking about what you were saying before, about, about what you said before. This would be an introduction to that conversation. Okay, I’ve put some sentences here. I’d like you to take a look at them. I’d like you to see if they are correct or not, and then to answer the question why. So here are the sentences. Pause the video. You can take a look at them and then I’ll come back. It wouldn’t be very helpful if I didn’t come back and give you the answers, would it? Okay, so how do you think we did? Let’s take a look. So, some of these are correct – quite a few of them, in fact – and some of them are not. Let’s take a look: Number one: She’s been walking to school. No problem. Number two: The cat has been drinking milk. No problem. Number three: He has been drinking water right now. Well, as soon as we add this “right now” we’ve got ourselves a problem here, okay? We can’t add “right now.” He’s been drinking water. If I, if I absolutely have to have this “right now” part, then I would have to say: He is drinking water right now, and have to use the present continuous. Number four: Mary is been talking to Susan. I’ve got a problem with my auxiliary verb. “Has been” talking not, is been talking. Number five: You have been walking to school? Errr! This drives me crazy! Students say this because they forget to change the order of these words here. Instead of you have, we have to go backwards and say have you. Now the problem here is that this is unusual, but it’s actually not incorrect… but it’s also not the best way to do it, so I’m not saying it’s okay – it’s not – don’t do this. Invert; in other words switch your subject and your verb. Number six: My brother has been liking football. No. My brother likes football. Liking doesn’t work well as a progressive. Number seven is correct. Number eight is correct. Number nine is correct. Number ten is not. The night has been being cold. Well, that’s not something that happens in a progressive sense. You say the night was cold if we want to talk in the past, or has been cold – we can use the present perfect. Okay, so how did you do? If you would like some more practice, take a look below. I’ve prepared some questions and activities for you to look at. That’s all for today. Thank you very much!

Tags English grammar, English lesson, ESL, present perfect continuous, present perfect continuous with examples, present perfect continuous with exercises, present perfect progressive, present perfect progressive with examples, present perfect progressive with exercises

Grammar Verb Tenses

Present Continuous

Post author By topshelfboss
Post date

Present Continuous

Form

The present continuous (or present progressive) verb tense is made up of a subject, the auxiliary verb (or helping verb) be , and the present participle (~ing form) of the main verb of the sentence. It looks like this:

Subject	Auxiliary Verb	~ing form
I	am	thinking
he/she/it	is	walking
you/we/they	are	running

To make the sentence negative, add a not after the auxiliary verb.

To make a yes/no question, put the auxiliary verb before before the subject. Add a question mark.

To make a WH question, first make a yes/no question, then add the question word at the beginning of the sentence. Remember to add a question mark.

Function

There are three ways to use the present continuous:

Actions that are happening right now.
Actions that happen over a longer time that includes now (but maybe night right now).
Actions that are planned for the future.

For more information about the present continuous, as well as some practice exercises, look to the top of this page.

Hello! This lesson is about the present continuous. Sometimes people talk about this verb tense as the present progressive. It doesn’t matter, it’s the same verb tense. When I was learning grammar, I learned in present continuous, so that’s what I’m going to call it. We’re going to look at a couple things here. First, we’re going to look at the form, which is how to make it. Then we’re going to look at the function, which is how to use it, and then, at the end, I have a little quiz that I’d like you to try. So, let’s get started. We’ll start first of all with positive sentences, sometimes also called affirmative sentences. So, as you can see, we have the subject and then we have an auxiliary verb, a helping verb, and it’s the verb “be” and it’s different for each person, so I am, he, she, or it is, you, we, they are, and then we have the present participle. Most people just call it the ing form or the ING form. So making the present continuous for a positive sentence isn’t that complicated. Let’s look at negative sentences now. All we do, is we slide the verb over, and we add “not.” Not very complicated. Okay, now we’re going to take a look at contractions. Yes, we love contractions in English, don’t we? That’s what they look like, and here if you notice, it’s the subject and the auxiliary verb joining together, okay? So I’m, he’s, she’s, you’re, we’re, and they’re, okay? Not too complicated when we look at it that way, but look at this. When we use contractions with a negative sentence, we have to be careful. What’s here is okay; I’m not listening, you’re not reading, so, so far, so good, but there’s actually a different choice, a different way of making contractions. So I’ll go back to my basic form here, and then … instead of joining the auxiliary verb with a subject, I’m going to join it with the negative marker. I’m going to join it with “not.” So, look at this. We’ll start from the bottom. You, we, they aren’t, so I’ve joined the verb with the not. I get aren’t. He, she, it isn’t, and then I… I hope you have noticed this by now. For I, it doesn’t work, okay? So for I, we can’t join the auxilary verb and the negation. “Amen’t” is not right. We would have to say I’m not. I’m not walking. Okay, let’s move on. Here are some things to be careful of with contractions. So, I am is I’m; no, there’s no problem, so far, so good. He, she, is. He’s and she’s, now you have to be careful with the pronunciation. This E has to be clear: he’s. Because if you mispronounce it, it’s going to sound like his, which, unfortunately, is a different word, which makes it very confusing. Next, you, we, they are. You’re, we’re and they’re. You have to be careful with all of these. This first one… it would sound kind of close enough; people would understand, but when you’re writing, you can’t write this. And this, by the way, is a mistake that, believe it or not, a lot of native speakers make. So if you’re ever reading something on the internet and you see “your,” Y-O-U-R, and you think to yourself that doesn’t look right, you’re probably right; its prob… we’re not really proud of this, but it’s true; it’s probably a native speaker who just doesn’t care. Alright, next one: we’re. If you forget the apostrophe, you’re going to end up with this: “were,” which, again, is something different; it’s a it’s a verb – to be in the past simple. And then this one: “They’re” is spelled this way: T-H-E-Y-‘-R-E not these other two ways and again, the people who are most likely to make those mistakes are not Language Learners. The people who are most likely to make those mistakes are actually native speakers, so just because somebody’s a native speaker doesn’t mean they get this right. Sorry about that; sometimes we don’t set a very good example. Okay, let’s take a look at yes/no questions. So, here we are again, with our basic form: Subject, the “be” auxiliary verb and then the present participle. So for yes/no questions, all I need to do is make those backwards. Now, I should – I didn’t, but I should have made these letters capital because they are now at the beginning of the sentence. One more type of question and that’s WH questions and for here, I leave this as I have it for the yes/no questions, and all I do is I put the WH question word at the beginning. So, Where is she walking from? Who are they talking to? Okay? So, something to be careful of and that is this: we do not usually use the present continuous for verbs such as like, love, what, understand, seem and remember. These are stative verbs because they describe how something is, not what something is doing. The present continuous is used for action verbs which describe what people animals or things do. Now, I just said be careful here; I’m going to say be careful again because an old grammar book would tell you this is always the rule. The truth is that language is always changing and people like to be creative with language. You will these days hear people say things like: How’s your new job? Oh, I’m loving it! And you will hear people use these with the continuous aspect. So “want”. I don’t know… I’m thinking yeah yeah I’m wanting pizza for supper. According to traditional grammar that’s wrong, but again, language is always changing. Here’s the problem: Because you’re not a native speaker, if you do it, people will probably think that you just made a mistake. If you were writing something, especially in school, then follow the old rule: do not put these do not put these verbs in the continuous aspect. Now, switching to the function of the present continuous. There are three common uses. First of all, for actions that are happening right now. So, let’s look at some specific examples. I’m watching TV. She’s typing the report. We’re eating breakfast. When are these things happening? Yeah, they’re happening right now, okay? Hey, do you want to go outside? No, I’m watching TV. Where’s Susan? she can’t talk to you right now she’s typing the report. Are you ready to go for work? I’m eating breakfast right now. I’m doing it right now. So, that’s one way to use it. This is going to be a little bit confusing. Actions that happen over a longer time that include now. So basically, what we have to do is ask ourselves, can we understand that the word “now” can have different meanings?And if the answer is “yes” then we’ll be fine. So, “now” can mean right now, at this very moment, or it can mean over a longer time. Let’s look at some examples, okay? All right, so we’ve stretched our idea of “now.” Let’s look at some examples. I’m reading a good book. Well, I’m not reading it right now. I read – I started last week, I read a little bit every night. I’ll probably continue till about the middle of next week, and then the book will be over, I’ll be finished the book. But I can say I’m reading a good book. I might say I’m reading a good book this week. Next, He’s learning a new skill. Well he might be studying it right now or he be practicing and learning and going to lessons; he’s maybe been doing that for a few weeks or a few months. It’s something he’s doing over the longer “now” not the immediate “now.” And finally, We’re enjoying the summer. Well, the summer doesn’t happen on one day; it happens over a longer period. Right now, we are enjoying it. Okay? So we have to be a little bit flexible with our idea of the word “now.” And, we can also use the present continuous, believe it or not to talk about actions that are planned for the future. Again, let’s take a look at some examples: How are you getting to London next week? I’m taking the train.They’re leaving next week. We’re walking to work. So all of these are actually talking about things that can happen in the future. Now, this one and this one could also talk about something that’s happening right now. What are you doing? (on the phone) I’m taking the train, I’ll be there in 10 minutes. Okay? What are you doing? Well, we’re walking to work. Okay, so I could use the the first one and the third one for what I’m doing right now. Clearly, though, this, this middle one is only about the future, okay? So very often we have to use context to understand exactly what we’re talking about. Let’s look at some sentences in the present continuous and I want you to tell me if they’re correct or not, and then why. So, here are the sentences. Take a few moments to look at them, and then…so pause the video, and I’ll come back in a few moments and I’ll… we’ll go through them, and I’ll tell you if they’re right or they’re wrong. Okay, so how do you think you did? Let’s take a look. Here’s the answers. So we can see that some of them are correct; most of them are not. Let’s go through them one by one. I’m reading that book. Obviously, this means over a longer time that includes now. Number two: We’re walk to the store. No, we’re walking to the store. Number three: He has eating hot dogs. We’ve used the wrong auxiliary verb there. He is eating hot dogs. Number four is correct: They’re travelling in France. Number five: I am walk to the store. What have I forgotten? Yeah, I am walking to the store. Number six: We thinking of an answer. I have forgotten the auxiliary verb there. We are thinking of an answer. Number seven: They are having nice clothes. No. They have nice clothes. Number eight: My friend is having a cold. It doesn’t work. We… it’s not something that we do, it’s just the way something is. My friend has a cold. Number eight: He is bouncing the ball. [This is a] perfect example of a present continuous sentence. And number nine: They are talking? Guuhhh! I hear students say this all the time. Remember, we have to change the order of these two, okay? Not they are talking; Are they talking? So, thank you very much for watching. If you’d like some more practice, take a look below. I’ve prepared some activities and practice for you. That’s all for today. Thanks very much!

Tags English lesson, ESL, grammar, present continuous, present continuous with examples, present continuous with exercises, present progressive, present progressive with examples, present progressive with exercises

Grammar Verb Tenses

Past Perfect Continuous

Post author By topshelfboss
Post date

Past Perfect Continuous

Form

The past perfect continuous (or past perfect progressive) verb tense is made up of a subject, the auxiliary verb (or helping verb) be , and the present participle (~ing form) of the main verb of the sentence. It looks like this:

Subject	had	been	~ing form
I/you/he/she /it/we/they	had	been	thinking

To make the sentence negative, add a not after had.

To ask a yes/no question, put had before before the subject. Add a question mark at the end of the sentence.

To ask a WH question, first make a yes/no question, then add the question word at the beginning of the sentence. Remember to add a question mark.

Function

Here is how to use the past perfect continuous:

To tell how long something had been true at a certain time in the past.
To tell about an action in the past that:
- had just ended (at a certain time in the past).
- the result of that action was probably easy to see.

For more information about the past perfect continuous, as well as some practice exercises, look to the top of this page.

Hello! Today I’m going to talk about the past perfect continuous. Now some people call it the past perfect progressive; it doesn’t matter, it’s the same verb tense, but when I was learning, I learned past perfect continuous, so that’s what I’m going to call it. We’ll start by looking at the form, which is how to make it, and then we will look at the function, which is how to use it. So, let’s get… ooh I almost forgot: at the end, I’ve got a quiz for you to see if you’ve learned what we’ve been talking about. All right, let’s get started. So, positive sentences. I, he, she, it, you, we, they, had been and then the present participle – the ing form. So this gets a little bit complicated because we’ve got to add both a “had” and a “been.” A note about this, too: depending on where you are, and depending on kind of the accent of your region, this might sound a lot more like “bin” instead of been. Now, they mean been, but they might say bin. I noticed that the people where I live say that, including me sometimes, so if I say bin, I mean been. Okay, let’s take a look. So this is pretty straightforward; positive sentences, or affirmative sentences, as some people say, which again, doesn’t make any difference; it’s the same thing, there is something we can do to change this a little bit. We can put the subject and the had together in a contraction, so instead of I had we’ve got I’d or he’d or she’d etc. okay? Okay, so now, we’re going to take a look at negative sentences. We’ll put everything back and we’ll just add a not between the had and the been. Now here again, we can use a contraction: she hadn’t been walking, you hadn’t been baking, okay? All right, so moving right along… Yes/no sentences. All we do here is we change the order of the had and the subject. Now this is the beginning of a sentence, so really this should be a capital H at this point, but it’s just you and me so you’ll forgive me, I hope. Had she been drinking water? Had you been reading a book? Okay? So yes/no questions. Now for WH questions, we leave things where they are and we just add the WH question word at the beginning of the sentence. So, why had you been singing? Who had you been seeing? Okay? All right let’s move on now to the function of the past perfect continuous. The past perfect continuous is used to tell how long something had been true at a certain time in the past. So again, how long something had been true at a certain time in the past. So let’s bring up our timeline. So there is a time in the past, and the past perfect continuous tells us what was happening before that… what happened after that, we don’t know. Let’s look at some examples. I have been watching TV – and what we’re focusing on here is this, okay? I had been watching TV for two hours when you came home. Now, did I continue watching TV after that, or was that the end? Did I do something else? We don’t know. This verb tense gives us no information on that. All we are thinking about is what had been happening, and how long it has been happening until this happened. So I had been watching TV for two hours when you came home. Okay, so we’re focusing on this, on how long something had been happening when it was interrupted. Let’s look at another example. By the time we met, I’d been living in London for a year. So by the time we met – so watch this arrow – look at that! By the time we met, I had been living in London for a year. Next example: By June the roof, had been leaking for three months. So by June, by the time June came, the roof had already been leaking for three months. The past perfect continuous is used to tell about an action in the past that had just ended at a certain time in the past, and the result of that action was probably easy to see. So look again, some examples will make this clearer for us, so we’ll look at some. So here’s my timeline and here’s something that had been happening, and this is the certain time in the past. Now remember that we’re looking back from now, okay? So the time that we’re thinking about, the time in the past that we’re thinking about, is back here. Okay, so, let’s take a look at some examples that’ll make this a little bit clearer. He was tired because he had been running, okay? So at this time, he was tired. Why? Because he had been running before that. He was tired because he had been running. Next example: We were excited because we had been planning our wedding. So, last Tuesday – we’ll say that this is last Tuesday, okay? – last Tuesday, when you saw us, we were excited. Why? Because we had been planning our wedding. One more example: They had been painting their house, so they were dirty. So, before we saw them, this is what they had been doing. They had been painting their house, and then when we saw them, they were dirty. Okay, let’s look at some sentences, and you tell me if these are correct or not. More importantly, you tell me why. So here are the sentences. Shut off the video for a moment, take a look at the sentences and then turn the video back on. Okay here are the answers. So how did you do? Let’s take a look. They had been walked for 20 minutes. Nope, that’s the wrong form they had been walking for 20 minutes. Number two: She was tired because she ran. No, she was tired because she had been running. Number three: He had been drove for less than 30 minutes when he got lost. Again, it’s a problem with the verb form: he had been driving for 30 minutes when he got lost. Number four is correct: They have been waiting since that time, since five o’clock. Number five: She was being smoking in the garage. Well, she smelled like smoke smoke. Why? Because she had been smoking in the garage up until the time she came into the house, but the effect was still there we can still smell the smoke. Number six: Your car hasn’t worked well. No, your car hasn’t been working well. You know, your car hasn’t been working well for the past two or three weeks. I think you should take it to the mechanic. Number seven: Grace were eating when I called her. No. Grace – if we’re going to use the past perfect – Grace had been eating when I called her. I could say Grace was eating when I called her, but that’s a different verb tense; that’s not what we’re looking at here. Number eight: I had been not expecting her. Well we’ve got the right parts, but we don’t have them in the right order. I had not been expecting her, so we have to move that and that and that to put them in the correct order, as it is over here. Okay, so how did you do? If you’d like some more practice, look below. I’ve prepared some more exercises and activities for you. That’s all for today. Have a good day!

Tags English grammar, English lesson, ESL, grammar, Past perfect continuous, Past perfect continuous examples, Past perfect continuous with exercises, past perfect progressive, Past perfect progressive with examples, Past perfect progressive with exercises

Grammar Verb Tenses

Past Perfect

Post author By topshelfboss
Post date

Past Perfect

Form

The past perfect verb tense is made up of a subject, the auxiliary verb (or helping verb) had, and the past participle of the main verb of the sentence. It looks like this:

Subject	Auxiliary Verb	Past Participle
I/you/we/they/ he/she/it	had	walked

To make the sentence negative, add a not between the had and the main verb.

To make a yes/no question, put had before before the subject and add a question mark to the end of the sentence.

To make a WH question, first make a yes/no question, then add the question word at the beginning of the sentence. Don’t forget to add a question mark at the end.

Function

The past perfect is used:

to tell about an action that happened in the past before another action, which is also in the past.

For more information and some practice exercises, look to the top of this page.

Hello! This lesson is about the past perfect. Before we even get started, I’m going to begin with a warning: learners often overuse this tense. Now, you should understand it, and you should be able to use it, but I have found that a lot of my students, once they have learned it, they use it much more than they should. We don’t use the past perfect very often – only in certain specific situations. I have a theory as to why my students like to use this, is that English is hard, and grammar is hard, and if something is complicated, then it must be right. I’m not sure because I can’t get into their heads, but I think at a certain level a lot of my students think of the past perfect that way: it’s difficult, so it must be right. Okay, I I admire your work ethic, that’s great, but no and again, we don’t use the past perfect very often; this should not be the first verb tense that you study at all. Anyway, let’s get started. We’re going to start with the form, which is how to make the past perfect, and then we are going to look at the function, which is how to use it. At the end of this video, I have a little quiz for you. Okay let’s get started. We’ll start with positive sentences. So the good news is that this really – despite what I said a minute ago – this really isn’t that complicated. We put the subject, we put the auxiliary verb had, and then we put the past participle. So I had wanted, you had taken, she had thought. Not complicated at all to make it. We can make it a little bit more complicated by making it simpler. We can put those words together and we have contractions. I’d for I had, she’d for she had, etc. You can do this as long as the writing that you’re doing at the time isn’t formal. Okay let’s continue with negative sentences. So we’ll go back to where we were and we will just add a not. I had not wanted she had not taken, etc. And again, we can use a contraction: you hadn’t thought, they hadn’t worn. For yes/no questions, we go back to where we were at the beginning. I had wanted, and we just invert, or reverse, the auxilary and the subject. Now this is the beginning of the sentence, so really I should have our – whoops – so really I should have a capital H here but you get the point. For WH questions, all I need to do is to just slide that whole thing over and add a question word. So it really isn’t that complicated. to use the past perfect. It feels a little bit fancy, maybe because we’ve got the the extra auxiliary, but it really isn’t that complicated. Here is where people have trouble, though, which is with the function – how to use the past perfect. So again, the past perfect is not… the past perfect is not better than other past verb tenses, okay? It doesn’t show that you’ve learned English any better. You have to use it in the right way and the past perfect is not for actions that happened a long time ago. Many of my students have told me that their teachers told them that we use the past perfect for things that happened a long time ago. That can be true, but that’s not a good way to think of it because we can also use them [it] for things that have happened quite recently. It depends how we are thinking of the situation, and how we are telling the story, not when the story happened. So, the past perfect is used to tell about an action that happened in the past – and this is the key – before another action which is also in the past. Okay I’m going to put this on a timeline to make it a little bit easier for us to talk about. So we see here my timeline. I’ve got past on the left, future on the right, and then I’ve got now, which isn’t in the middle because we’re talking about the past in this video. Here I have two past actions. I’m going add one more feature to this timeline before we get started, which is days of the week. I think days of the week is just a nice easy way to to explain this because we’re all very familiar with them. Just to be clear, this Monday and Wednesday and Friday are all from the same week. I’m not playing tricks, they’re not from different weeks. All right, let’s take a look. Normally we would tell a story like this from the beginning to the end. Normally we would say, for example, I bought a cake on Monday then I ate it on Wednesday. Now, this is today; this is now, this is Friday, okay? So Wednesday’s in the past and Monday is also in the past so two things in the past, but you notice that I’m telling the story this way through time. I bought it on Monday and I ate it on Wednesday. I’m starting at the furthest time in the past and I’m coming closer towards now, but what happens if I want to do this? If I want to tell the story the other way? Let’s take a look here. I ate a cake on Wednesday. So far, that’s essentially the same: I ate a cake on Wednesday. But now, what do I do to get to here? What do I do to get to Monday? This is where we use the past perfect… that I had bought on Monday. I think you can agree with me Monday is not a long long time ago in the past. It was only a few days ago, okay? So it doesn’t matter how long ago it was in the past; it just matters how we’re telling the story. I had bought it on Monday. Let’s look at some more examples: On Wednesday – now remember today is Friday – today is Friday’s so we’re going back in time. On Wednesday, she sold – so I’m using the past simple – the bread that she had baked – I’m going further in the past – had baked on Monday. It was Wednesday. My bike had – so it’s Friday as I’m speaking – I’m talking about something that happened on Wednesday, so the time and focus is now Wednesday, so from Wednesday, my bike had been broken since Monday. From Wednesday, my bike had been broken since Monday. So by, Wednesday my bike being broken was already in the past. So we have seen that the past perfect is used to tell about an action that happened in the past before another action which is also in the past. But be careful – the first action can be long.Tthe key is to think about what happened before what else happened. So again, we’ll go back to our timeline. Here we’ve got two past actions. Now, this… these X’s suggest that these are things that happened on one day, so for example: she baked the bread, she sold the bread. Those are quite short actions, but I can also think of it this way: instead of being a short, one day action, I can think of it being a much longer action, as well. That’s what this slide is about. Before I visited Germany – okay, so this is now, okay? Visiting Germany is already in the past, okay, but before that, I had studied for a long time. Before I visited Germany I had studied German for three years. Bob’s retirement was very fancy and expensive. Obviously the retirement party is over because we’re using the past simple. He had worked at that company for almost 20 years. So again, this is a longer time, this 20 years; it’s not a short thing. Before that, he had studied at University for seven years, before that… So you can see here what the past perfect does is it allows us to tell the story backwards, okay? All right, let’s take a look at the little quiz that I have for you. So I’m going to put up some questions, and I want you to decide which action in the sentences came first and which came second. Okay, here are the sentences, so take a look, turn the video off, and figure out which action happened before which other action. I’ll come back in a moment and I’ll give you the answers. Okay, so, let’s take a look. I’m going to put up a table here that has the answers. So we can see in each sentence which action happened first and which happened second. So we’ll go through a few of them. They had already seen that movie when we asked them to come with us. So first they had seen the movie and then we asked them to come with us. Okay so they saw it first and then we asked them. Number 2: She boiled the carrots she had chopped. Well yeah, this one’s a little bit easier maybe to see because it’s logical: you chop the carrots and then you boil them. Number 3: He had already told her by the time I met her. So I met her and I told her, but before I met her and I told her, he had already told her. So he told her first, and then I met her and then I told her, okay? All right, so I hope you get the idea. So if you’d like some more practice, look below this video. There’s some more exercises for you to do to make sure that you really have the past perfect. And again, remember, the most important thing isn’t how to make it; it’s when you should use it, and don’t use it if you shouldn’t. Okay, thank you very much; have a good day!

Tags English grammer, English lesson, ESL, grammar, past perfect, past perfect with examples, past perfect with exercises

Grammar Verb Tenses

Past Continuous

Post author By topshelfboss
Post date

Past Continuous

Form

The past continuous verb tense is made up of a subject, the auxiliary verb (or helping verb) had, and the past participle of the main verb of the sentence. It looks like this:

Subject	Auxiliary Verb	–ing Form
I/he/she/it	was	walking
you/we/they	were	reading

To make the sentence negative, add a not between the auxiliary verb and the main verb.

To make a yes/no question, put the auxiliary verb at the beginning of the sentence (before before the subject) and add a question mark to the end of the sentence.

To make a WH question, first make a yes/no question, then add the question word at the beginning of the sentence. Don’t forget to add a question mark at the end.

Function

The past continuous is used:

to tell about actions that were in progress when they were interrupted by another action.
when two actions were happening at the same time.
when an action was happening at a specific time in the past.

For more information and some practice exercises, look to the top of this page.

Hello! Today I’m going to tell you about the past continuous. Some people call this the past progressive. When I was learning grammar we called it the past continuous, so that’s what I’m going to call it. It’s the same thing. All right, we’re going to talk first about the form, which is how to make the past continuous, then we’re going to talk about the function, which is how to use it, and at the end of the video, I have a little quiz I’d like you to try. Let’s get started. First of all. the form: how to make the past continuous. So for positive sentences, or sometimes we say affirmative sentences, we have the subject, we have an auxiliary verb, and then we have the present participle, which most people just call the ing form or the I-N-G form. Notice how the subjects are grouped: I and he and she and it, even though I didn’t write it, use “was” as their auxiliary verb you and we and they use “were” as their auxiliary verb. The present participle or the I-N-G form is the form of the verb that comes at the end, so what makes the difference is the auxiliary verb that we use, whether we use was or were instead of am or is or are, okay? So this is where we make this verb be the past continuous instead of the present continuous. So for negative sentences, all we do is we add a “not” Now that’s quite simple. There’s something that we often do after that that makes it a little bit more complicated, which is that we put was and were together with “not” and so we end up with these contractions, wasn’t and weren’t instead of wh… was not and we’re not. Okay so continuing from there, we’re going to take a look at yes/no questions. So we go back to where we were, and then all we do is we switch the position of the auxiliary verb and the subject. Now, this is the beginning of a sentence, so really there should be a capital W and this should be a capital W as well, but you get the idea. Was I singing? Were you laughing? Okay so yes/no questions – we call these yes/no questions of course because the answer will be yes or no. One other type of question and that is WH questions and there we stay with how we have a sentence for our yes/no questions. We then just add our question word, okay, we just add that to the front. Nothing else changes. So, what was I thinking? Why were you running? Let’s take a look now at the function; how to use the past continuous. We use the past continuous in a couple of different ways. The first way we’re going to look at is that actions that were in progress when they were interrupted by another action. So something was happening and then something else happened to stop that. So take a look at our timeline here. Something was happening and then something else happened that interrupted it. Now what happened after that? Did the action continue? We don’t know; it doesn’t matter, okay? That’s not the information we’re trying to communicate, okay? So what we’re talking about is: this was happening and then this happened and interrupted it. What happens out here? We don’t know, we don’t care; it doesn’t matter for the past continuous. It also doesn’t matter when that was. Was it last year? Was it this morning? It doesn’t matter; we can use the past continuous for any time where these conditions are met, where something has happened and then something else interrupted it. So let’s take a look here. I was watching TV when the phone rang. So the phone [that] rang interrupted what I was doing. They were talking – sorry, they weren’t talking, they were walking; they might have been talking as well, but this just says they were walking. They were walking when they smelled smoke. The smelling of smoke interrupted their walking. She was talking when they heard a noise. Okay? So, again hearing a noise interrupted the talking. We also use the past continuous when two actions were happening at the same time. So here again is our timeline. Here’s one action, here is another action. Now watch this: it doesn’t matter which one started first, it doesn’t matter which one ends first, it doesn’t matter how much they overlap or when they overlap, but when they overlap is when we can use the past continuous. So you can see here just inside this green line when both things are happening and then just inside this red line, okay, both actions are happening at the same time. That’s when we can use the past continuous. We often use “while” in these sentences: While I was cooking dinner, she was reading a book. Who started first? Who ended first? It doesn’t matter; we don’t know, but it doesn’t matter. Tthe point is for some of the time, we were doing both of those things at the same time. While John was sleeping, his sister was working hard. Again, who started first? Who finished first? It doesn’t matter. While we were talking, they were riding their bikes. So for at least part of the time that we were doing this they were doing that. Finally, While he was playing soccer, she was flying a kite. Again, both of these things were happening at the same time and again. I’d just like to point out we very often use “while” in this type of sentence, and see that in all those examples. We can also switch the order of the clauses. I’ll just go back here: While I was cooking dinner, she was reading a book. She was reading a book while I was cooking dinner. While John was sleeping, his sister was working hard. His sister was working hard while John was sleeping. While we were walking, they were riding their bikes. They were riding their bikes while we were walking. While he was playing soccer, she was flying a kite. She was flying a kite while he was playing soccer. Now you may or may not have noticed that the commas all disappeared. That’s not a mistake; that’s very much on purpose. The clause that starts with “while” is a dependent clause, and when the dependent clause comes second, or it comes later in the sentence, we do not use a comma. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, but you would like to know what I’m talking about, check out my videos on clauses and sentences – two different videos. We also use the past continuous when an action was happening at a specific time in the past. So earlier, we were looking at it this way, where an action was happening and then something interrupted it. okay? That’s not what we’re looking at here. What we’re looking at here is at this time, this thing was happening, so we’re kind of looking at it backwards. An example hopefully we’ll make this clearer. I was travelling in June. The forest fire was burning in August. In 2006, I was living in Taiwan. So in all these examples, I’m saying at this time, this thing was happening, okay? And, at two o’clock, he was walking home. So at a specific time, something else was going on so and actually was happening at a specific time in the past. So here’s our quiz: Correct or not. and why? I’m going to put up ten questions, or ten sentences. I would like you to look at them and to decide, in the context of looking at the past continuous, if these sentences are correct or not, and if they’re not correct, what is wrong? What do we need to do to fix them? Okay, here they are. Pause the video and then I will give you the answers. Okay let’s take a look. So first of all, here’s the answers. So some of them are correct, some of them are incorrect.Tthe ones that are incorrect, we’ll take a look at now. I watched TV when the phone was ringing. Well, that’s not progressive is it? It’s not continuous. I was watching the TV when the phone rang, okay? So this is the longer action – was watching TV – was interrupted by this verb in the present [past] simple: the phone rang. We were liking the movie. We don’t use like in the continuous, okay? We were liking the movie? No, it just doesn’t work. We liked the movie; we can’t use it in the continuous. It’s, it’s… this, in theory, this sentence is correct, except for the fact that this verb doesn’t work in the continuous. Oops! There we go. He drank water when he choked nnno. He was drinking water when he choked. So the choking interrupted the drinking of the water. It was snowing at five o’clock. So at five o’clock, what was happening? It was snowing. Number five: They are walking to the store. Well, there’s nothing wrong with this, except for the fact that we have used a present verb, okay? So they were, because this is the past continuous that we want, not the present continuous. Number six: My friends were eating and drinking. No problem. Number seven: Grace were eating when I called her. That’s a problem with the verb here. Grace was eating when I called her. Number eight and number nine are both correct. Number ten: They was enjoying the picnic. Again, a problem with the auxiliary verb here. They were enjoying the picnic. So how did you do? If you’d like some more practice, I’ve prepared some more exercises, so just look below this video and you’ll be able to get to those. Okay, thank you very much! Have a good day!

Tags English grammar, English grammar lesson, grammar, past continuous, past continuous with examples, past continuous with exercises, past progressive, past progressive with examples, past progressive with exercises

Grammar Verb Tenses

Past Simple

Post author By topshelfboss
Post date

Past Simple

Form

The past simple (simple past) verb tense is made up of a subject and the past form of the main verb of the sentence. It looks like this:

Subject	Past Form
I/you/he/she/it/we/they	walked

To make the sentence negative, add did not between the subject and the verb and remove the ed from the main verb.

To make a yes/no question, put did at the beginning of the sentence (before before the subject) and change the form of the main verb to the base form (e.g. in the table above, walked becomes walk. We do this because the did is what shows that this sentence is in the past. ESL learners often forget to change the verb, so be careful!

To make a WH question, first make a yes/no question, then add the question word at the beginning of the sentence. Add a question mark at the end.

Function

The past simple is used:

to tell about actions that were in progress when they were interrupted by another action.
when two actions were happening at the same time.
when an action was happening at a specific time in the past.

For more information and some practice exercises, look to the top of this page.

Hello! This video is about the past simple. Some people call it the simple past, mostly in North America, but when I learned it, I learned past simple, so that’s what I’m going to call it. It doesn’t matter; it’s the same thing. First we’re going to take a look at the form, which is how to make the past simple, and then we’re going to look at the function, which is how to use it. We’re going to spend a lot of time talking about the form, but actually, the function – how to use the past simple – is what matters more. At the end of this video, I have a quiz for you, so make sure you stick around for that. Let’s get started. All right, let’s start by looking at the form of the past simple. Now we’re going to start by looking at regular verbs. Well most verbs simply take an ED, but that’s not the only choice; sometimes there’s just a D and sometimes there’s an I-E-D. So we’ll take a look at some examples for each of these possibilities. So when the word ends in an E we don’t add an E-D, we just need to add a D, so bake becomes baked, smile becomes smiled, free – which might look a little bit different because there’s two E’s – doesn’t matter, we just add a D. When words end with Y, we have to change things a little bit. The Y becomes an I and then we add E-D, so try becomes tried, cry becomes cried, and bury – or bury – becomes buried or buried. You can say that word both ways. Most people have one way they like to say it, and they will tell you that anything else is wrong. No, it’s not; there are two perfectly acceptable ways to say that word. Anyway, let’s keep moving. So, what about everything else? Well, easy we just add E-D. Laugh becomes laughed, fill becomes filled, boil becomes boiled. Easy, right? Not so fast. There’s actually a few other things to think about. When there’s a short vowel and then a consonant, we have to double the final consonant, so tap we see T-A-P, that A is a short A – a – and then there’s a P, so we have to double the P. So. tapped. If we don’t double the P, if we just add E-D, then it becomes “taped” so that’s why we have to do it. Beg becomes begged, rub becomes rubbed. Okay, so are we finished now? No, remember these are only the regular verbs. Let’s take a look at some irregular verbs. There are a few categories of irregular verbs and once you know the categories, it doesn’t seem so complicated; there’s less to remember. So the easiest one is there simply no change, so beat becomes beat. We beat to the drum every Wednesday. That’s the present simple. He beat the drum last Wednesday. That’s the past simple. Change the middle vowel. Become changes to became, begin changes to began, and choose changes to chose. This is one that a lot of people learning English have trouble with, so if the verb you are trying to change – I’m sorry – if the verb that you are using is this type of irregular, remember to change the vowel, and again, it’s in the middle of the word, This last one that we looked at here, this choose and chose, this is something that even native speakers have trouble with, which I don’t understand – it’s not that complicated! Anyway, let’s keep going. Sometimes it’s just completely different. So am, is, our becomes was or were and have or has becomes had. Okay, let’s look at some positive sentences. So positive sentences, or affirmative sentences, we make like this. We have the subject: I, you, he, she, it, we, they, and then we put the verb in the past. So baked, filled, cried. Negative sentences… we do something to the verb, so the verb changes and what was here – that E-D – it moves, and it goes over here to this auxiliary verb. So baked, when we have a negative, is did not bake, and of course also don’t forget to put the negation marker, the “not” okay? All right and one other thing that we can do here, is we can make a contraction, so did not gets put together into one word: didn’t. One thing that people sometimes have trouble with is where to put the apostrophe and it goes between the N and the T. You can think of it as the O changing to an apostrophe; sometimes people put that in the wrong spot. So now for yes/no questions. We add “did” now I probably – well, not probably – I definitely should have put this as a capital D because it’s the beginning of the sentence, but it’s just you and me, so we understand what I meant. So did you bake did she cry etc etc. WH questions: it’s the same thing, except we add the question word to the beginning. So, where did you fill? What did you bake? Okay? So that’s the form; we will now look at the function, which is how to use the past simple. We use the past simple for events that happened, and that are completed – that finished – in the past, so if I’m going to make a diagram like this, this is where things happen in the past simple: before now, okay? So we see over here is past, so before now, and they’re over. I’ll just move that out of the way. Take a look at some examples. I opened my birthday presents. We arrived. They ate the eggs. Now in none of these sentences do I say when it is. What people will understand that these actions are completely over. Now to make it a little bit clearer, I can add a second part here. I opened my birthday presents this morning. This morning is now over. We arrived last night. Last night is obviously over. They ate the eggs yesterday. Yesterday is also obviously over. So again, we use the past simple for actions that are in the past and that finished in the past. I will bring this back and we’ll take a look here. We also use the past simple – this is important – to tell stories in this direction. In other words, that are going forward through time. There is a way in English to go backwards through time, but that is not with the past simple, and we’ll see that later. Okay, I have some questions I would like you to look at, and I want you to tell me if these sentences are correct or not, and then I want you to tell me why. Just before I bring the questions up, I want to remind you that we are looking at these sentences in the context of the past simple, so please remember that. Okay, take a look at these, pause the video, and decide if these are correct or incorrect, and if they are incorrect, why? What needs to change? Okay, pause the video now. Okay, let’s go through the answers. So if we look down the left side, you can see that some are correct, some are not correct, and then number three is a little bit confusing, but we’ll talk about that. So let’s start first of all number one: She walk in the forest sometimes. Again, we are looking at this in the context of the past simple, so in the past simple, She walk? No, she walked. Number two: We liked to eat a lot… and we still do – I do anyway! That’s correct, so we can leave that. Number three. This might be a little bit confusing, because it’s marked both correct and incorrect. So, it is correct. Maybe it would be better to say it’s not wrong – He did drink water – I can say that in English, and I haven’t talked about that until now. You may have heard something like that. It is correct. I can say He did drink water, but I would not normally say that. I would normally say drink is an irregular verb – changes the vowel in the middle – I would normally say he drank water. Well, when do I say he did drink water? I could say he did drink water when I want to emphasize the fact that it happened. So I would say, He did drink water! So we could say, for example, you know: Oh! He’s too dehydrated; he just needs to to drink some water. He did drink water! He’s not dehydrated; he’s sick! Okay? So it’s not wrong, but it’s also not the best answer, unless you have a specific reason for making your sentence look like that. Jean is taller than Frank. Well, it’s a good sentence, but not in the past simple, and this is one of the things that people do: they mean the past, but they write in the present, so don’t do that! Jean was taller than Frank. Tom and Jim walked to school together. No problem. My brothers don’t like football. Again, this is like number four; it’s a correct sentence: My brothers don’t like football – but it’s in the wrong tense. We want these sentences to be in the past simple, not the present simple. Number seven is the wrong verb form. They had fun. Number eight is the wrong verb altogether. Those hamburgers are – I’m sorry those hamburgers were good. All right, what about number nine? Well, I’ve learned from number three, so I know that this is okay. It might not be the best way, but I know that it’s okay. No, it’s not, because this is also here, so now I have two different pieces of grammar here, two different signs, that this is in the past simple, and I can’t do that. One or the other, okay. Both? No. So, learned would be the normal way of writing that. Did learn, okay, but only if you have a special reason. And number 10: The book was interesting. That was correct. Okay, so how did you do? If you’d like some more practice, take a look below the video. I’ve prepared some other exercises for you. That’s all for today. Thank you very much!

Tags grammar, past simple, past simple with examples, past simple with exercises, simple past, simple past with examples, simple past with exercises, verb tenses, verbs

Grammar Verb Tenses

Present Perfect

Post author By topshelfboss
Post date

Present Perfect

Form

The present perfect verb tense is made up of a subject, an auxiliary verb form of have, and the past participle of the main verb of the sentence. It looks like this:

Subject	Auxiliary Verb	Past Form
I/you/we/they	have	walked
he/she/it	has	built

To make the sentence negative, add not between the auxiliary verb and the main verb.

To make a yes/no question, put the auxiliary verb at the beginning of the sentence (before before the subject), then add a question mark.

To make a WH question, first make a yes/no question, then add the question word at the beginning of the sentence. Add a question mark at the end.

Function

The present perfect is used:

an action that happened in the past, and the result of that action can be seen now.
an action or state that started in the past, and that is still true, or still important, now.
an action that happened at some time in the past, but either we don’t know when, or it doesn’t matter.

For more information and some practice exercises, look to the top of this page.

Hello! This video is about the present perfect. We’re going to start by looking at the form, which is how to make the present perfect, and then we will look at the function, which is how to use it. After that, there’s a short quiz, so make sure you stay to the end of the video. Let’s get started. All right, the form – how to make the present perfect. So for a positive sentence, or affirmative sentence, we have the subject, we have the auxiliary verb – have or has – so it’s have for every person except for he, she, and it, or where have has, and then the past participle: Built. For negative, it’s just the same, except we obviously have to add negation. Now one of the things we like to do in English, is make contractions, to make shorter forms. So, I can do this: I haven’t built. She hasn’t walked, okay? For yes/no questions, again I start at the beginning, and then all I do is, I move the auxiliary verb to the front, and the subject to after. Now, because this is the beginning of the sentence, really, I should have capital letters here, but I don’t. I hope you forgive me. One more type of question to look at and that’s WH questions. Once again, I start with a basic positive sentence. I move the auxiliary verb to the front, and then, at the very front, I now add the question word, okay? So that’s how to make the present perfect – not very complicated. There’s not very much to understand – just remember it and then do it. Okay, let’s look now at the function – how to use the present perfect. The present perfect is a present tense that feels like a past tense, and the reason it feels like a past tense is because it connects the past to the present. There are three main uses and we’re going to look at these one, two, three, but it’s important to understand that sometimes you know, is this use number one or is this use number two or number three? Sometimes it would be hard to say saying if it’s number one or number two or number three. [It] doesn’t matter very much. What matters is are you using the right tense at the right time? Okay, let’s take a look. First of all, the present perfect is used for an action that happened in the past, and the result of that action can be seen now. So the … The visitors have arrived. They’re here now. The shops have opened. Now we can go shopping. I’ve made breakfast. It’s on the table, let’s eat! So, these actions happened in the past, but they are connected to the present. So again, they happen in the past but the result of that action can be seen now. Next, we use the present perfect for an action or state that started in the past and that is still true or still important now. He’s been sick for two days. Now, by choosing to use this verb tense, I’m saying yeah two days ago he got sick, but I am also saying he is still sick now. Now, I don’t say that but, but I am. Every native speaker would understand that he is still sick now. She’s started a new business. So, her business is open now. So she started, you know, we don’t know when, maybe it was five years ago ,maybe it was last week, we don’t know, that doesn’t matter, but the point is the business is open now. Remember, it connects the past to the present. One more example: We’ve become vegetarian. And the key, what we’re saying here, is we don’t eat meat now. So these days, in the present, we don’t eat meat. Another way to use the present perfect is for an action that happened at some time in the past, but either we don’t know when, or it doesn’t matter, it’s just not important. Let’s look at some examples: I’ve visited in France three times. When? It doesn’t matter – that’s not what I’m saying, that’s not what I’m talking about. All I’m saying is I’ve visited France three times in my life. So yes, I’ve been there, I know what the country is like. They’ve climbed that mountain. When? That’s the wrong question to ask, That’s not the point. The point is that they have been to the top of that mountain at some time. He’s got, or gotten, heavier. Well that means he weighs more now than he did in the past. Just by the way the reason, I wrote this like this in North America, we use the the older form. Very often, we say gotten. In the UK, that sounds very old-fashioned, and very often they will laugh at you or… I don’t know, sometimes they make sure that you see that they are laughing at to you, and sometimes they try to hide it, but whatever. In the UK, they don’t use that. In the UK, they would just say he’s got heavier, so it depends where you are as to what the correct form is, okay? Let’s look at some common uses of the present perfect. We often use the present perfect with since or for. This is actually kind of a lesson within a lesson because people often confuse these words. We say since when we’re talking about a specific time and we use for for an amount of time. So let’s look at an example: Richard moved to London and 2015. Speaking in 2018, he can say either I’ve lived here since 2015. Okay, so since a specific time, or he can say for for an amount of time. He can say I’ve lived here for three years. Something else that we often use with the present perfect is the word yet. Yet is often used with the present perfect, especially in questions and negatives, and what’s important is what it means, but doesn’t always directly say; it shows that the speaker is expecting something to happen. Have you heard the news? Have you heard the news yet? Now, I don’t have to have that yet there, but I will often put it there. I haven’t called him yet. Okay? And by saying yet, I’m saying I will, but it just hasn’t happened at this time. Just is also commonly used with the present perfect. Just is used to focus on something that has happened very recently. Are you hungry? I’ve just baked a cake. Well that’s handy! Mary isn’t here. She’s just left. She was here five minutes ago, but now she’s gone. Here’s some bad advice. Some, now, this is what some students have told me that their teachers have said. Some teachers say that the present perfect is used for actions in the recent past. Well, that can be true, but that’s not a good way to think of it. The present perfect can be used to describe recent actions, but that is not why that verb tense is used. How far back in time an action is does not decide what tense we use. We choose which tense to use based on how the situation we’re talking about fits with other actions or other events, okay? So it depends how we’re thinking about the situation, not how long ago it happened. Okay? So let’s look at some examples of this: The visitors have arrived. They probably arrived just a few minutes ago, so this is the reason past, that’s fine, but the important thing is that they’re here now, not when they got here. Now, look at this one. I’ve graduated from university twice. One of these graduations was obviously further in the past and the other, but the focus is on what I’ve done, not when I did it, okay? So it’s not about the recent past, it’s about its connection to the present. As soon as an action is placed in time, so I see yesterday, last week, 20 years ago, we use the past simple, not the present perfect. The visitors arrived five minutes ago. They climbed that mountain in 1992. I made breakfast last week. Okay? So all of these – five minutes ago, nineteen ninety-two, last week ,they put these actions at a specific point in time, and because of that, I don’t use the present perfect anymore… unless that time is unfinished! I’ve had two cookies today, but today isn’t over… I might have some more. We’ve watched two movies this week. Again, I would understand – if somebody used this verb tense to talk about this situation – I would understand that this week isn’t over yet and that we may watch some more movies. They’ve made a million dollars this year. Again, I understand that there’s the possibility of making more money this year. This year is not over. Okay, I have some questions here, or some, some sentences. I’d like you to take a look at them and then decide if they are correct or not, and then more importantly, why. So here are the sentences. Take a few moments, look at them, and then I’ll come back and we’ll talk about the answers. Pause the video now. Okay, so how do you think you did? Let’s take a look. Okay, so some of them are correct, some of them aren’t. Let’s go through one by one. Number one is easy – no problem. I have read that book. When? Doesn’t matter! I’m just saying that I know what happens in it. Okay, number two: We’ve just walk to the store. No, we’ve just walked to the store. Number three, again, is okay: He has eating hot dogs. Number f… oops! Number four: They visited France in 2016. Well there’s two different ways to fix this. I could take out the “in 2016” part because there I put it in time, or I could take out the “have” which is what makes it the present perfect instead of the past simple. So there’s actually two different ways to fix this. Here, I just wrote “not in 2016,” so this is one way of fixing it, but it’s not the only way. If I changed this, though, I now don’t have a sentence in the present perfect, which is what this video is about, so that’s why I chose to say that, that this was, this was the right answer. Number five: I am walked to the store. No; I have walked to the store. Another problem with our auxiliary verb. Number six: My brothers has started a business. No, not has; have. Number seven and number eight are both correct. Number nine: We have read that book last year. This is very similar to number one. The difference here, and the problem is that we have put it in time, so as soon as we put something in time, we can’t use the present perfect. okay? So again, we could say: I read last year… so take this away and make it the past simple, or I take away this part and just say I have read that book. Two different ways of fixing it. Number ten is correct. So, how did you do? If you’d like some more practice, look below. I’ve created some activities and some questions for you. That’s all for today. Thank you very much!

Tags present perfect

Grammar Verb Tenses

Present Simple

Post author By topshelfboss
Post date

Present Simple

Form

The present simple (simple present) verb tense is made up of a subject, an auxiliary verb form of have, and the past participle of the main verb of the sentence. It looks like this:

Subject	Base Form
I/you/we/they	walk
he/she/it	walks

To make the sentence negative, add do not between the subject and the main verb. For he, she and it, use does instead of do.

To make a yes/no question, put do at the beginning of the sentence (before before the subject). If your subject is he, she or it, use does instead of do, and remove the s from your main verb. (e.g. Does she walk?) Finally, add a question mark at the end of the sentence.

To make a WH question, first make a yes/no question, then add the question word at the beginning of the sentence. Add a question mark at the end.

Function

The present simple (simple present) is used:

for things that happen often, or that are always true.
things that are true for a long time.
facts and scientific truths.
scheduled events.

For more information about the present simple, as well as some practice exercises, look to the top of this page.

Hello! This video is about the present simple, or as some people call it, the simple present When I learned grammar, I learned the present simple, so that’s what I’m going to call it. It’s my video; I get to make the decision! First, we’re going to look at the form, which is how to make the present simple, and then we’re going to look at the function, which is how to use it. At the end of the video, there’s also a little quiz. So we’re going to look at these two things here – we’re to look at the form of the function. We’re probably going to spend more time looking at the form, but actually, what’s more important is the function – how to use the present simple. Let’s get started. So, first of all, we will look at positive sentences or, as we also can say, at affirmative sentences. So we start with the subject: I, you, we, they, and then he, she, and it are a little bit different. So we take the base form of the verb – the base form is the infinitive without to – and you’ll notice that for he, she, and it, there’s something that’s a little bit different. I add S’s to the end of those words, okay? We call this the third person S. So he and she and it have to have their S, and that’s whether it’s a positive sentence, or a question… whatever it is, there has to be an S there. When I was teaching in Germany, my students taught me a little rhyme that their teachers taught them and today I’m going to teach you. “He she it, das s muss mit!” He, she, it the S must go with it, okay? So he, she, it das s muss mit; if there’s he, she, or it, there has to be an S in the present simple. Okay, I’ll remind you of that a few times as we go through. Let’s take a look at some example sentences. I walked to the store. He – which is obviously part of he she it – he walks to the store. You drink coffee every day. She drinks coffee every day. We start the tennis match at 7:30 It – the match – starts at 7:30. Now let’s take a look at negative sentences. So we start where we were before, with the subject and then the base form Notice I’ve got my S and I slide that over, and I have to add two things. I have to add an auxiliary verb, and I have to add a negation. So this is the easy part, so we’ll talk about this first. I obviously have to add this “not” to make the sentence negative. Now look over here. For I, you, we, they, I add “do” but for he, she, it I add the OES; I add “does.” Now if you take a look at this, there’s actually a little mistake on what I’m showing you right now. Can you find it? It’s over here. You see it now? I’ve left my S’s here, which, when I’m using the negative form, I can’t do, and the reason is because they’re over here instead. So, now that I fixed that, we’ll continue. He, she, it – I do still have to have my S but it goes on the auxiliary verb, and this is something that confuses people for a while when they are first learning English. It is what it is; it’s not going to change. Just do your best to remember. One other thing, and that is it sounds like “duz.” It doesn’t sound like do-is. Sometimes when students are first learning, they make that mistake. I understand why, but that’s not right. We say “does.” Okay, there’s one other thing that we could look at before we move on, and that is contractions. So, I can take the do not or the does not and I can combine them, and I end up with don’t or doesn’t. Notice I still have my S here; I still have my third person S. Okay, let’s go back to where we were a moment ago, and now we’re going to move to yes/no questions. So yes/no questions, all I do… well I take away the negation because it’s not a negative question. All I do is I change the auxilary verb and the subject. Now, because these are now at the beginning of a sentence, I really should have a capital D here and a capital D here, but I don’t so you will have to imagine. So, yes/no questions: Do you build? Does she walk” okay? Now there’s one other type of question, which is WH questions. From here, it’s very simple; all we do – at the beginning of the sentence – is we add our question word. Where do you build? Where does she walk? How do they talk? Okay? All right. so that’s the form; that’s the easy part. Here’s the more important part to the function, which is how to use the present simple. We use the present simple for habits, for things that happen often, or for things that are always true. I walk to work – that’s how I get there; I don’t take the bus, I don’t drive. I walk. Gina is my sister. Well, Gina has been my sister for a very, very long time. Gina will be my sister for a very, very long time. This is just something that, that, it just is the way it is okay? It’s always true. Or – and this is where people get confused a little bit – things that are true for a long time. He lives in London. So, he may have lived in London – he may have been born someplace else, but now he lives in London, and he’s been there for a long time and he will probably continue to live there for a long time. With the present simple, we’re not talking about kind of how something started or where it’s going to go in the future; we’re just saying that this is true now, okay? So he lives in London. If he’s visiting London – notice I said visiting ing – that’s a short time period, so we don’t use the present simple. We use the present simple for ideas that are true over a longer time. Another way we use the present simple is for facts, for scientific truths. The Sun rises in the east. It always has, it always will. Water freezes at zero degrees Celsius. Those are scientific facts; those are never going to change. I wrote “bonus” here; a lot of people don’t talk about this… we’re still using the present simple, but if you notice, we’re actually talking about the future. It’s… we can think of it as “this is a future fact” or “this is a fact about the future” so we can talk – sorry, we can use the present simple for scheduled events, okay? So it’s scheduled events; it hasn’t happened yet, but it is, again, a future fact. The plane arrives at 7 o’clock. The train leaves at 4:30. Those are both very specific times on the clock. Okay? Look at this net next one, though, it’s quite different. The party starts after the Sun goes down. It’s not a specific time on the clock, but we can still understand that as being a time in the future, okay? So we can use the present simple to talk about the future, when we’re talking about scheduled events. This is really important because this is where people make the most mistakes. So I’ve just talked about how we do use the present simple; now I’m going to talk about how we don’t use the present simple. We do not use the present simple for things that are happening right now. So if I have a sentence: I drink water. What that means is I drink water often; I drink water every day; if I made a diagram, it might look like this, okay? So in the past, drinking water, drinking water, drinking water. This is, this is now. In the future, I will continue to drink water, okay? So I’m saying this is a fact; this is how things are. If you’re a little bit confused, just hold on; it’ll be clear in a minute. Take a look at this it doesn’t have this meaning: If I say “I drink water” it does not mean “right now I am drinking water” that’s not what that means, okay? So I drink water means this is a habit; it doesn’t mean this is what I’m doing right now, and this is the most common problem, is that people want to use the present simple for what they are doing not for something that is true. Okay, I’ve written some sentences here. I’d like you to look at them and decide if they are correct or not, and, more importantly, why. Okay, so here are the sentences – and remember we are looking at them through the lens of the present simple. So, are these sentences correct in the present simple or not? Pause the video and I’ll come back in a moment and share the answers with you. Some of them are correct, some of them are not. The ones that aren’t, please tell me why. I’ll pause the video now and I’ll come back in a few moments. Okay, so how do you think you did? Let’s take a look. Here are the answers. So we can see that there are problems with most of these sentences. Let’s go through them one by one. She walk to the store. No, we forgot our he, she, it. He, she, it, das S muss mit, so she walks to the store. Number two is correct; there’s no problem there. Number three: He drinks water right now. Boy, I hope you got this one right because we just talked about this okay? Not right now; he is drinking water right now. He drinks water often, he drinks water every day, okay. If we’re talking about what he’s doing right now, we cannot use the present simple. You have to use the present continuous. Winter colder than summer. There is no Verb here. You would have to say “Winter is colder than summer.” Tom and Susan walks to school together. Now, depending on what your first language is, this might look completely correct. You might be kind of scratching your head right now wondering what the problem is. Well this S… I understand why people might put that there, but that S doesn’t belong because Tom and Susan is like “they” and it’s he, she, and it that gets the S, not they. So Tom and Susan is “they.” That s should not be there. Number six: My brothers likes football. Well, this is very similar. “They like” and, so we do not put this S here. Number seven: They has nice clothes. [A] problem with the verb again: They have nice clothes. Number eight: These pens is good. Well, these pens, that’s plural, so not “is” but “are.” And number nine: Ice is being cold. Well it’s not being cold; it’s not something that it’s doing, okay? So this is the problem here. Ice just is cold, okay? So not being cold; it doesn’t work in English. Number ten is correct: The light is bright. So, how did you do? If you’d like some more practice, look below the video. I’ve created some activities and practice for you.Tthat’s all for today. Thank you very much!

Tags present simple, simple present

Grammar Verb Tenses

All Future Verb Tenses

Post author By topshelfboss
Post date

Look below for information and practice will all English future verb tenses.

Future Simple

Forms and Functions

The future simple takes many forms, depending on how the speaker sees the situation. This table helps sort this out. (It’s explained more fully in the video above.)

Purpose/ Use	Going to	Will	Present Continuous	Present Simple
Vague plans or Intentions	X
Definite Plans			X
Decision at Time of Speaking		X
Offer of Help		X
Promise		X
Prediction Based on Knowledge/ Information/ Experience		X
Prediction Based on Current Observation	X
Scheduled Events				X

Future Continuous

Forms

Subject + will be or going to be + present participle (~ing form) of the main verb.

Function

The Future Continuous is used for events that will be in progress at some time in the future, and for continuous (“longer”) events in the future.

Future Perfect

Form

Subject + will have + past participle

Function

The Future Perfect is used to talk about a time or event that is in the future now, but that will be in the past at a time further in the future.

Future Perfect Continuous

Form

Subject + will have been + past participle

Function

The Future Perfect Continuous is used to talk about how long something will have been happening at a certain time in the future.

For more information about how to talk about the future in English, as well as some practice exercises, look to the top of this page.

Hello! This video is about the future in English. The first thing I’m going to say is maybe going to surprise you. There is no future tense in English. Let me explain. Let’s look at these verbs: begin, begin begun; draw, drew, drawn. I’ve changed the form of these verbs, but there’s no change that I can make to these verbs to make them refer to the future. So well then, how do we talk about the future in English? ecause we obviously do talk about it! Well, all we have to do is we have to add extra words. Well, okay, so you gave us a problem and then now you have solved the problem, so why are you doing this? I’ll tell you. Why does this matter? The future in English is messy. Rules for past and present verb tenses can be complicated, but there are fairly clear rules. Now, sometimes there’s overlapping rules, and we can we can do one thing or another and it doesn’t matter, but, so, that’s what I mean when I say it’s complicated, but talking about the future is less clear than talking about the present or the pas. That’s the bad news. The good news is that mistakes when talking about the future are much less serious. Even if you make a mistake, most people will understand what you’re trying to say. Where if you make a mistake with the past or the present, you can actually be saying something quite different from what you think you’re saying. In the future, that’s not usually such a problem. Okay, in this lesson we’re going to talk about these… now I just said there’s no verb tenses and and there aren’t, but we can still think of them as such; we can talk about the future simple, the future continuous, the future perfect, and the future perfect continuous. The way that we get there is a little bit different than we get there in past or present verb tenses, though. Okay, let’s get started. So generally, the future simple is used for events that are predicted or intended for the future. We choose the form of the future simple based on how we see the situation, so if we see the situation one way, we use one way to talk about the future; if we see the situation differently, we can use a different way to talk about the future. We’re going to look at going to, will, the present continuous, and the present simple. So to keep things straight, I’ve made this table for us. Now these are guidelines – they’re not absolute rules, so please remember that again if we use the the wrong form of the future, people will usually still understand, although it might take them a little bit of extra effort. Let’s take a look. So we’ll start at the top there where it says vague plans or intentions. Typically for vague plans or intentions, we would use going to. So, for example: uh… We’re going to visit my parents. Yeah, yeah, yeah, leave me alone, okay? I know. I’m going to fix the window. Notice there I use the short form gonna, instead of going to. No difference, no difference in meaning. He’s going to look for a solution. When? I don’t know but just relax; it’ll be fine. Okay? So vague plans or intentions. Definite plans, now this is the funny thing about the future, is that because it hasn’t happened yet, it could always change, but sometimes we make plans and they’re kind of yeah maybe, and other times we make plans and they’re much more sure. So for definite plans, or more definite plans, we typically use the present continuous. Let’s take a look. So for definite plans: We’re visiting my parents on Sunday. So you can see here – now i don’t have to add this on Sunday, but I did that in this example because it shows, well, it’s not some vague idea; we have a specific plan: We’re visiting my parents on Sunday. I’m fixing the window tonight. Now could I say I’m going to fix the window tonight? Yes, that wouldn’t be wrong, but typically this is what people would say. He’s flying to Phoenix next week. The sentence usually includes the specific time that the plan will happen. You know what? I’m not sure I like this word “usually.” Maybe I should have said “often” instead. Like I said, the future’s kind of a little bit strange. It’s, it’s hard to, uh, it’s hard to make rules that will always be true. Think of these as guidelines. Okay the next category is the decision at the time of speaking. So you weren’t – this isn’t a plan; this is a decision that’s made right now. Typically we would say will. So decision at time speaking I’ll finish this job tomorrow. Next, oh I’ll get the door. You weren’t sitting there… wait, wait, come back, come back, come back! That wasn’t really the doorbell; that was, that was, that was the video. You weren’t… Let’s just play pretend. You weren’t sitting there waiting for the doorbell to ring. The doorbell rang and you made a decision right away: I’ll get the door; I’ll answer the door is what that means. Are you hungry? I am. Yeah, I’ll call for pizza. So that wasn’t my plan a few moments ago, but since we’re both hungry, yeah, I’ll make a decision now, I’ll call for pizza. Next, an offer of help. We would also use will. So, I’ll carry your groceries for you. We’ll help find a solution. I’ll open the door for you. Okay? So I’ll help you in this way, I’m going to carry your groceries for you makes it sound like this is a definite plan. The next situation we’re going to look at is a promise. And we would also say will for that. I’ll pay you back next week. I’ll do all – let’s work together on this; don’t worry, it’ll be fine for you – I’ll do all the hard work. Now,Ii don’t have the word “promise” in either of these, but we understand that a promise is being made, a commitment. I won’t make that mistake again. Next prediction based on knowledge or information or experience. For this we would also use will. So, no no, he’ll get that question wrong. There’s no way he’s going to find the answer. Um… yeah, we’ll be finished by nine o’clock. Ah! This team, they’re playing so well, they’ll win the game tonight. They’ll win the game tonight for sure. Next, a prediction based on a current observation. We would typically use going to. So, look up in the sky Hmm it’s going to rain tonight. The game is almost over, we’re up by a lot… we’re going to win the game. Ah! She’s going to be late again. She’s always late and I’m sure today will be no different. And the last one, I’m hoping you can figure this one out because we haven’t used the present simple yet. We use the present simple to talk about scheduled events. Let’s look at some examples. So the train leaves at 7:30. My plane takes off at quarter after nine. The lesson starts when the teacher arrives. Okay? So those are all scheduled events. Now we’re going to look at the future continuous. The future continuous is for an action that will be in progress at a certain time in the future. So here’s a timeline. We’ll put some information on it: six o’clock, 10 o’clock, so that’s the time that I’ll be working, from six o’clock to eight… to ten o’clock. So at eight o’clock, which is in the middle of that time… okay? Between six and ten o’clock I can say: Don’t call me at eight o’clock; I’ll be working. So my work will be in progress at that time. Different example: I’m going to be sleeping at midnight. So, yeah, come on, we’ll stop by your place at midnight and then we’ll go out. No, don’t come to my place at midnight. I’ll be sleeping at midnight, or I’m going to be sleeping at midnight. Again, we can use both. She’ll be walking home at that time – whatever time that is. Okay? So this, this talks about actions that will be in progress at a certain time. We can also use the future continuous for longer events in the future. So i’m travelling to London next week. I’ll be staying at the Ritz in London. I’ll be studying economics at university. Typically, that would probably be for four years, so that’s obviously a longer time. He’s going to be travelling for six weeks. Now let’s take a look at the future perfect. The future – this is a little bit complicated, so hold on to your hat – which is an idiom that means get ready – the future perfect is used to talk about a time or event that is in the future now. So here we are right now, okay? So we’re talking about something that’s in the future, but that will be in the past at a time further in the future. So there’s what – it’s in the future right now, but it will be in the past at a future time in the future. Let’s see if we can’t make this a little bit easier. Today is Monday. Right now, both Wednesday and Friday are in the future. So far, so good? By the time Friday comes, Wednesday will be in the past, even though Wednesday is in the future right now. So if I look at this from – I’m looking forward in time and I’m saying on Friday, Wednesday will be in the past. Okay? By Friday I will have finished this project. So by Friday, it will be over; I will have finished this. Same concept, although I’m not talking about the project anymore, By then, we will have seen the movie. So by then, I will know how the movie ends, because by then, I will have seen the movie, even though I haven’t seen it yet. Not right now. By that time, our holiday will have ended. Future perfect continuous – you thought we were done, didn’t you? Almost, almost. The future perfect continuous is used to talk about how long something will have been happening at a certain time in the future. So, there’s our certain time in the future, and we’re talking about how long something will have been happening. So how long this has been happening… Does this have to start in the future or can it start in the past? Well, the answer is, it doesn’t matter; that’s, that’s not what is important here. What’s important is at this time, how long will have this been happening? From there or, from all the way back there… We don’t know it doesn’t matter. Let’s look at some examples. By Wednesday, which is in the future right now, I will have been working for 12 days. I will have been working for 12 days in a row. Okay? So by the time this Wednesday comes, I will have been working for 12 days. By 2 a.m., he will have been sleeping for three hours. So obviously, he went to bed at 11:00.By 2 a.m. 3 hours of sleeping will already be in the past. Okay, I’ve put some sentences here. I would like you to take a look at them. Decide if they are correct or not and then why they are correct or not. Okay, so here are the sentences. You take a look, pause the video and I’ll be back in a moment with the answers. Okay, so how do you think we did? First, here’s the answers, or, well here’s whether it’s right or wrong. Ugh! Only one is right! Oh my goodness! Let’s take a look. Number one: She going to be late. is going to be; we forgot the auxiliary there. Number two: They will probably won’t get married. Hmm… well it sounds like you’re saying two different things at the same time here. Will or won’t, but not both. So i could say: They probably won’t get married, that would work, or They will probably get married, but I can’t have both. Number three: His sister will be not happy. His sister won’t be happy. Okay? Will be not? Nope, that’s not going to work for us. Number four: He will probably has more popcorn. This is one of the easier ones, I think. He will probably have more popcorn. Number five, thank goodness, is correct. Let’s get back to work at number six: I will going shopping tomorrow. No. We take off the “going”. I will go shopping tomorrow. Number seven: It going to rain. I forgot my auxiliary. It is going to rain. Number eight: They will losing the game. No they will lose the game – that’s my prediction: They will lose the game. Number nine: What time is leaving the train? No, not even close! What time is the train leaving? And number ten: I will am finished by then. We just looked at this. I will be finished by then. Okay, so how did you do? If you’d like some more practice, look below; I’ve created some more practice activities for you. That’s all for now. Thank you very much.

Tags be going to, English grammar, English lesson, ESL, future, future perfect, future perfect continuous, future simple, going to, going to future, present continuous for future, present for future, present simple for future, will, will future