To make an /ɪ/ sound, hold the front part of your tongue high. Relax your lips and tongue. When /ɪ/ comes before a voiced consonant, it is a bit longer than when it comes before a voiceless consonant.
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Tag: English lesson
To make /u/ round your lips. Lower the front part of your tongue and raise the back of your tongue.
/u/ /u/ is made by rounding your lips and pushing air out. /u/ is a long sound. Ooh before a voiceless consonant ooh Before a voiceless consonant tooth juice fruit proof suit loot hooch And before a voiced consonant: cool pool blue ghoul soon lure move And let’s look at some example sentences: Jude’s tooth broke in the cool juice pool. A pool made of juice? No, that’s probably a pool filled with juice, which is still pretty crazy. Ruben will soon be a blue ghoul. If you’d like some more practice, look below.
- Tags /u/, English lesson, English sounds, Pronunciation
It looks like a short “I” but it sounds like a long “E.” Hold the front part of the tongue high and spread the lips. The consonant that comes after this sound has a major effect on it. When /i/ is followed by a voiced consonant, the sound is much longer than when it is followed by a voiceless consonant.
To make an /i/ sound, keep your mouth mostly closed and raise your tongue with your tongue touching your teeth along both sides. /i/ is a long sound. Let’s look at some examples, first before a voiceless consonant: Pete priest cheap beef ether heap beast. Now, we’ll take a look at the same sound before a voiced consonant: green leaves steed being keen cheap league And in some sentences: Pete’s heap of green leaves is cheap. He’s keen to be a priest. If you’d like some practice, look below the video.
- Tags English lesson, English sounds, vowels
Vowels are a very important part of learning and language, but especially English. English has more vowels than many other languages, which means that ESL learners often have to hear and distinguish new vowel sounds when they learn English.
Now that you understand these ideas, go back to the English Sounds page and practise the sounds of English vowels until you’re a master!
Hello, I’ve made a series of videos about English vowels, but before you watch those videos you should watch this one because I’m going to explain some ideas here that you’ll need to understand to understand what I’m talking about in those other videos. So let’s get started. So first of all, why do we need to study English vowels? Well hearing a sound is the first step to being able to say a sound, So if you are learning a new language, you are learning not just new words, but new sounds as well, and this is one of the most difficult things. I remember when I was trying – not very hard, I have to admit – and I was trying to learn Chinese and people would say no, no, don’t say it like that, say it like this. And it would sound exactly the same to me because I wasn’t hearing the different sounds that they were making. So if you want to learn to speak English you’re going to have to learn to hear those sounds even if they are different from your language. The idea here is that once you can hear the sound you’re trying to make it gets much easier to say the sound, which makes you much easier to understand. So let’s start at the very beginning here. What is a vowel? We know that there are vowels and we know that there are consonants. A vowel is a type of sound that we make when our mouth is more or less open. So with consonants, we will very often slow down or completely block the air that’s coming out of our mouth. With a vowel, our mouths are more or less open and the air is coming out more or less freely. One of the most basic questions that we should be able to answer is, “How many vowel sounds are there in English?” Well, it would be nice if we could answer that simply, but we can’t. It depends which English or Englishes you are looking at. It also depends on which linguist you’re talking to. The estimates that I remember reading about when I was doing my Master’s degree was anywhere from kind of the low 20s to kind of the mid 20s, so kind of 20 21 22 up to 26, I think was the highest number that I ever read. That doesn’t matter. You are not becoming a linguist What we’re trying to do here is is to teach you how to speak English. Here’s what you need to remember. There are probably more vowel sounds in English than there are in your language. Now, it’s not a contest but this is just the way it is. And it’s one of the things that can make learning English difficult. Let’s take a look… in England, of course they have many people who come to to learn English there, and people from Spain in particular, they say, “I come to England on a sheep.” Well, they don’t probably say that this is actually an old joke, but just just just follow along. “Really? You came to English on a sheep, did you? Well when I went to England, I went to England on a ship. So… the point of this is that in Spanish the /i/ and the /I/ are interchangeable. There isn’t what we call a contrast of difference, and in English, that’s not the case. In English the /i/ and the /I/ are different sounds and they make different words as you can see here. By the way, I apolog… apologize for that terrible Spanish accent. I promise I won’t do that again. Something else we have to understand is voicing. What is voicing? Let’s just take a look here. So here are two sounds that or two letters, rather. Well they’re sounds because they’ve got the slash but a lot of people when you first look at them, you think well they’re really quite different. One’s at the beginning of the alphabet, the other one’s at the end. They don’t look anything alike. Actually, these are almost identical. So the one on the left here, so I’m over here. Here’s how I make this sound. /f/ Now, to go from there to there and make this sound, the only difference is I’m going to turn my voice on so I’m going to make the /f/ sound first: /f/. Now you hear there’s no difference there? Now I’m going to make the other sound, the V sound. /v/ And you can hear the difference in quality of the sound because when I’m making the /v/ sound when I hit my throat, it disrupts the air so the point is /f/ and /v/ are exactly the same except for voicing. Okay. So there are a lot of pairs and if you look at the consonants, the consonant videos that I made, I explain this and they ,we, I go through all of the different pairs. You need to understand this because the sound that comes after the vowel will very often affect the vowel. So let’s take a look at an example here. So life and live Life and live. Now because we were just talking about it, you probably noticed the /f/ sound here and the /v/ sound here. But I want you to listen to what comes before that. I want you to listen to The I sounds: life, life. Live, live. The one… this word over here, the vowel is a lot longer, okay? So it’s not really – it’s the same sound, but it’s it’s quite a bit longer, which gives it a different quality. So once again on the left: life. On the right: live. Now take a look here. I got this from an online dictionary and take a look at the way they… So in the in the UK and in the US, all of those are the same. So the dictionary will tell you that they sound exactly the same even though we just heard that they don’t. So, as we go through, I have different lists of words. I have the vowels that come before a voiced consonant and vowels that come before a devoiced, or a voiceless consonant. Okay, and just in case you’re wondering I got that from the online dictionary: dictionary. Cambridge.org, so if you don’t believe me if you think I’m playing games with you, you can go and check that. But if you don’t believe me, why are you still listening to me? The next thing that we need to look at is this: The International Phonetic Alphabet. Now, it’s kind of interesting that we call it “The International Phonetic Alphabet” because really, over the years, there have been many different versions of it and unfortunately many different books, many different language teaching books use partly their own system, partly the… the system that the author liked. Some of them use the kind of the most current official version. The point here is that unfortunately we talk about “The” International Phonetic Alphabet; the truth is, for people like you and me learning English, there’s really no such thing because there are so many different versions of that, which means that when you use a new book, you might have to learn some new symbols or some new ways of talking about those sounds. And, just in case I talked about this later, IPA is just short for International Phonetic Alphabet. If you search I P A, you will probably get some kind of beer, but that’s not what I’m talking about. The symbols that I’m going to use I’ve chosen them for a specific reason, and that is so that you can go from this to a website that I think is really great: English Accent Coach.com I’ll make a separate video about that because it would take too long now, but the symbols that I’m using here are…I chose them because you will be able to transfer, and you’ll be able to use those at EnglishAccentCoach.com. So that’s all for the introduction and enjoy the videos! It’s not the kind of thing you can do all in one day, so maybe do a few and then come back in a day or two and continue. All right. Thank you!
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!
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!
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!
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!
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.