Transcripts
1. Course Overview: Hey, welcome to the course. My name is Luke. I'm an
American English teacher. I will be your teacher for this complete course on
English verb tenses. You will, in this course, master English verb
tenses by example. But you have to put in the work because you may watch a lesson from this course
and say, I get it. I get it. Oh, the
examples are so clear. But then a week
later, you forget. Why do you forget because
you didn't put in the work? So I want you to
make a commitment. We're going to go
through all the tenses. We're going to look at examples. We're going to learn the
structure of each verb tense. And you are going to make examples throughout the
course for each one. Make a lot of examples. And if you ever have a question, you're going to ask
me You're going to ask me to better
understand the tense, the thing that you're
not sure about, right? That's the only way. This
is a two player game, right? We do this together. If it's just you sitting
there listening to me, Even if you understand
everything 100%, it will still eventually fade. You have to put in the work. Okay? So that's what I
want you to know and really agree to in your mind
before we start this course, that we're going to be going
through each verb tense, exploring each one,
how it's used, what it means, specific
realistic examples that people would really say, and then how we can
structure it, right? And then you will take that information and you
will do something with it. You'll make your own examples, you'll practice, and
you'll ask questions. Deal. Hopefully, it's a deal. So if it is, and you're
ready to get started, let's jump into our
first verb tense.
2. Simple Present: 's start with the
simple present tense. The simple present tense
is actually not usually used to talk about what
you do in the present. That's a different one. Usually, the simple
present tense is used to talk about a general true thing, something
that's true. It may also be used to
talk about a routine, a routine action
that someone may do, or perhaps a habit. So let's look at some examples. I walk to work every day. Now, does that mean that that has to be actually every day? If it rains, for example, Well, no, it's not too strict. But generally, it is a habit. That is something
that I usually do, something that's true
about me, right? How about she eats brunch
with friends every weekend? She eats. She eats. So she does this every weekend. There may be exceptions, but it is her routine. That is something that she
does often in the past, in the present, in the future. The Earth goes around the sun. The Earth goes around
the sun is true now, true in the past, and will
be true in the future. So it is a general truth. We use the simple
present to talk about this kind
of thing as well. Notice the verb is
the simple form, but it will change depending
on the subject. I walk She walks, he walks. She eats, he eats, we eat. They eat, I eat, it eats. You have to change the verb
depending on the subject, but the verb itself is
just the simple verb. The Earth goes around
the sun. Well, that would be the same thing. Gos is the simple
form of the verb, and we say goes instead of
go because the Earth is it. So it would be the same as
it goes around the sun.
3. Present Continuous: Present continuous tense. This one is also called
the present progressive. This is the one
that we use to talk about things that
are happening now, things we're doing right now, actions happening in the present or perhaps
temporary actions, and we can use this one to
talk about future plans. That's right. We can use it
to talk about the future. So some examples, and then we'll talk
about the structure. She is reading a book. That is what she is
doing right now. They are living in Paris
for the summer. Okay? That could be right now, but it could also be the future. I am going to a
concert this weekend. Okay, what do we notice
about this tense? Well, first, we have
the subject, S, they, I, it, he, we, right? Then we use is or. And if it's I, we
would say I am. I am, they are, we are, she is, he is, it is. Then we say an I and G verb. Reading, living, going, playing, planning,
spending, watching, sleeping, breathing, all of the verbs in the
ING form. Got it. So that's the structure. Now, she is reading a book is something that when
I look over there, there she is, that is
what she is doing. But if I say they are living
in Paris for the summer, maybe if it is summer now,
that is what they're doing. But if it's the springtime now, and I say they are living
in Paris for the summer, then actually, the
grammar is the same, but it is about the
summer, not now. It's in the future. So this can very easily be used to talk about future things that will happen soon that
will be continuous, like living, right,
or going somewhere. It's kind of a process, right, that is happening
in the future. Nothing changes with
the actual grammar. It's just about the future. I am going to a concert this weekend is the
same as saying, I will go to a
concert this weekend. And we can use this to talk about two things happening
at the same time. I am reading a book, and she is watching a movie. So we're doing two things
right now at the same time.
4. Simple Past: Simple past tense. Well, this is for
actions that are done that are completed
that happened in the past. This is for finished
events, right? I am going to a
concert this weekend. Well, I did that. Now it's done. I went to a concert
this weekend. They traveled to
Japan last year. They went to Japan last year. The bike shop
closed early today. I spent a week at the retreat. So this is all
stuff that is done. Usually, some thing
that happened. The beginning,
middle, and end of that are all in the past, or some thing that happened
suddenly in the past. Like it broke. The light baulb broke. It happened before, but it
was a sudden thing, right? So, it can be about sudden
things like a light bulb. It can be about events that
maybe take a bit more time, things that are all completed, even if it has a beginning,
middle, and end. Now, one thing you
have to do with this tens is change the verb. They traveled to Japan. The bike shop closed early
today. I spent a week. So they and I and the
bike shop or it, right? He or she, that's the
same. That doesn't change. What changes is it's not the
simple form of the verb, you have to change the tense. Now, sometimes the tense
is simply adding ED. Traveled, closed. Travel, traveled. Close, closed. But sometimes it isn't,
like spent, right? So that's where it
gets a little strange. I don't want to go over all of the different verbs that we
could possibly talk about, but just know that there are regular verbs like
travel and travel. And there are irregular
verbs like spend and spent. E and eight, right? Go and went, No god. So we don't always add ED. If it's an irregular verb, then it has a different form. And honestly, you just
have to learn it.
5. Past Continuous: Next one is called the
past continuous tense. This is also sometimes called
the past progressive tense. Now, you can think of
this one as the same as the present continuous tense or the present
progressive tense. The only difference is
that it's in the past. So how do you know if it's in
the present or in the past? Well, we'll get to
that in a second. Generally, This is for actions that were happening at a
specific moment in the past, or for two actions that were
happening at the same time. Now, notice how I said that. Were happening. So happening, that's an I and G. But were, that's a little
bit different, right? So let's go through
our examples first. I was watching TV
when you called. We were asleep when
the power went out. I was getting a haircut while
you were eating dinner. For all of these, we
have a regular subject. That doesn't change. I,
we, you, they, right? That's the same. The thing that's different
is that for these, we're using W and W and were. And for the present, we use
is R and M. I was watching. I am watching. I was
watching as in the past. We are sleeping,
we were sleeping. Okay, were. I was getting a haircut, I am getting a haircut, right? Same basic idea. We're just putting that
B verb in the past. And it was or were, depending on the subject, I was, he was, she was. They were. We were. It was. Okay? So that's pretty simple. Now, for this one, just
be aware that it's often used when there
was a thing happening, and then something happened. And the thing that happened
is the simple past tense. So Here I am. I was watching TV, watching TV, ha ha ha. And then, Doom, you called. I was watching TV
when you called. So often this is used when
something something that happened stops this
action that was going on. I was reading when
Kaboom a thing happened, a window broke, and that thing that happened is the
simple past, right? And we use the I was to tell you the interesting thing
that basically was going on so that you have some idea of what this thing that
happened interrupted, right? We were sleeping when
the power went out. If I just say, the power went out, it's missing something. I want more context. And that we're sleeping
is really useful context. But we can also
use it when there are several things
happening at the same time. I was getting a haircut while
you were eating dinner. Two things happening
in parallel. Very common and very useful.
6. Simple Future: L et's talk about the
simple future tense. Now, we know how to talk about the future using the
present continuous tense. I am going to a
concert this weekend. The thing that
tells you that it's the future is when
it's going to happen. You have to say that or we won't know that it's in the future. If I say, I'm going
to a concert, then I don't know
if you're going there now or this
weekend. I don't know. So you have to say this weekend, next Monday, in an hour. You have to say that piece. Otherwise, I have no idea you're talking about the future. I'm going tonight. Oh, great. Okay, so that's not now. But if we don't need that part or we don't
want to use that part, we might choose the
simple future tense. And this is where we
use the word will. We use the word will as the simple future tense
to talk about well, future actions, decisions that's made right now about the future. I will quit smoking. So I didn't say when, I could say, I will
quit smoking this year. I will quit smoking next year, but it is about the future. I made the decision now, but it is about the future
from now into the future. The arrow is pointing to
the future from now, right? It could be about a prediction, something that we think is
going to happen in the future. So some examples. I will go to the
grocery store tomorrow. That's so simple, right? I'm just telling you
what's going to happen. It's a certain thing
in the future. So when you use will like this, it's sort of like saying,
Yes, it's certain, right? It's not a maybe. She will take a few months
off to recover. She could take a few months
off to recover next year. We don't know exactly when. Now, you can still
add that piece. She will take a few months
off to recover next year. And then we understand when that future
thing is happening. But the important
thing is you don't always have to have it, right? They will probably have
a lot of questions. So using a word like probably
just adds less certainty. So it's useful.
Sometimes you don't want to be 100%, right? I will go to the
grocery store tomorrow. Okay, wow. You're very dedicated to going to
the grocery store. I will probably go to the
grocery store tomorrow, right? Okay, that's a little
bit more maybe natural. That might be more normal. Either one is okay, but we're not usually
that positive about going to the
supermarket, right? We may also hear if. I don't want to make
things too complicated. But if we say something like, I will go to the
grocery store tomorrow, If I have time, then we're saying this thing will happen if another
thing is true. I don't want to confuse you. We're focusing on tenses, but just know that
we can do that. Now the way that we
structure this one is pretty simple.
It's the subject. I, she, they, and
then will, I will. She will. They will. That's pretty simple.
And then the verb. Now the thing to know
about the verb is that you don't need to change it. At all, just the simple
form of the verb. So she will take. We don't say she will takes. But if will is not there, then we will say she takes. So we have to change the verb. We have to have subject
verb agreement. But if we're using W, suddenly we don't need
to do that anymore. The verb is the
verb, is the verb, just use the simple
form, and that's it. Okay. So that's the
simple future tense. Now, let's start to get into some slightly more
complicated tenses. This is where things get a
little bit more difficult. If you have any
questions throughout, please just let me know. And if you want to try to make examples for each of these, I would strongly encourage it. That's a way to really
make sure you get it.
7. Future Continuous: Okay. Future continuous tense. And we could also call this
one future progressive tense. Now, you might have the
basic idea already. Maybe you can guess. This
is for actions that will be happening at some
specific time in the future. And it's usually
an ongoing action, not some sudden
thing that happens. So some examples. He will be running a marathon
this time next week. I will be sleeping by
the time you read this. They will be celebrating
their anniversary next week. So this is an
interesting one because it is this ongoing action, but we're usually placing
that ongoing action, at some point in the future. Now you don't have to say that. You can just say, he will
be running a marathon. But usually, the
reason that we use this tense is to say that
at this time next week, or next year, or in ten years, something some ongoing
action will happen. But it's not a simple thing, right? I will make a call. No. I will be probably
reading my third book. But it's when we don't
want to talk about it as a simple action. You might say, I will
travel to the Bahamas. Well, maybe I just want
to say that I'm going to go there and I'm not
focusing on the process. But when I want to focus on the ongoing thing that will
happen when I get there, then I may want to use the
future continuous tens. This time next week, I will be in the Bahamas. I will be reading a
book on the beach. There I want to focus
on this this activity that I am doing or will
be doing in the future. So that's what makes
it a little bit more difficult because, yes, it can be just used to say things that will happen in the future
that are ongoing. But it is most often
when we want to put that ongoing thing at some
point in the future, right? So I will be sleeping by
the time you read this. I know that you're
not available now. I'm getting very tired. And so I just send a follow up text message to let you know that when you're finished with the
thing you're doing, and when you see this message, I'm not going to be awake. I will be sleeping. So please don't
wake me up, right? They will be celebrating
their anniversary next year. You could say they
will celebrate their anniversary next year. That's the simple future, right? Why would I say, for example, they will be celebrating
their anniversary next year rather than they will celebrate
their anniversary. They will celebrate.
It's more like an event. Yeah, either one is okay. But it feels more like this thing that
everyone is enjoying, this maybe party that
everyone is experiencing, I want it to feel stretched
out so that you can picture yourself there having fun
in the middle of the party, in the middle of the action, right, as it goes on. So that's maybe why
I would choose to use the future continuous tense. And yes, we usually
just do will be, and then the ING verb. So he will be, she will be
they will be, it will be. So it's very simple, right? It's very easy. It's
just the subject, and then will be, and then the ING
verb. That's it.
8. Present Perfect: Now we get into the
present perfect tense. Uh uh. This is the
scary one, right? Well, it doesn't have to be. People often get
confused about this, and that's
understandable because it can be a little confusing. But I think if we
explore some examples, you'll get the idea. This is usually used
for actions that happened at an unspecified
time before, now. It is often used to talk
about experiences or things that happened
a specific number of times before the
present, right? The thing that we don't want to do is talk about exactly when. So why would I use the present perfect tense
instead of the simple past? Just remember this,
when you don't care that people know
when it happened. It just happened. It's
done. It's in the past. I don't care if you know when
it happened. It happened. So that's the difference
between saying, I ate breakfast and
I've eaten breakfast. Usually, if you say
I ate breakfast, you'll say something else
like I ate breakfast at 9:30 or I ate breakfast
maybe before I went to work. You're putting it in
time in the past. But if you say, I've eaten breakfast or I have
eaten breakfast, then don't worry about when, don't worry about
when it happened. I don't want you to care about that or think
about it at all. It happened. It's done. Don't worry about it. All you need to know is that it's done. That's generally how we're using the present perfect tense. And one reason it's confusing is just because the word
present is in the tense, present perfect, but
it's about the past. Well, yeah, Think
of it like this. It's true now about the past. So it's referring to the
past, but it's true now. If I say, I have
eaten breakfast. That's like a little label
next to me that says, this person has eaten
breakfast, right? It's true about me that I'm the type of person who
has eaten breakfast. That's a label that you
can add to me right now. It is about the past, but it's true about me, right? Okay, maybe you're confused. Example time. They have
visited France three times. It's true about them right
now that in their lives, they went to France. If I say I went to
France three times, I'm now thinking about, k, well, did you recently,
a long time ago? No, no, no. Don't worry about when I have been to
France three times. Oh, okay, I don't need
to worry about when. That's just something that's true about you right now, right? So they have visited
France three times. It's kind of like a
label about them, something that's in
their history, right? That we just want
to know about them. And we're not maybe jumping into when each visit to
France happened. I have lived here
for about 12 years. So this is another way that the present perfect
tense is used. Not just to talk about
a number of times, but also something
that started in the past and has continued
until the present. We're going to look at present
perfect continuous next. So remember this,
something that started in the past and is still
going on right now. If I say, I have lived
here for 12 years, the question is, do
I live here now? The answer is yes. I live here. And I started living
here 12 years ago. I have lived here
for about 12 years. It's kind of the same as saying I have visited
France three times, kind of because it's
true about me, right, right now, that my history here in this place where I
live is 12 years, right? So I'm talking about now, but I'm referencing the past. That's the idea. She
has written two novels. Okay? She may write
more in the future. But at this current
time that we're asking, she has written two novels. I've already eaten. Thanks. I've already
eaten. Okay? Same thing. Don't worry about when
it happened, right? It's true about me now that I
did this thing in the past. Done. Now, you may
notice something there. I. Well, I is the
same as I have, and you can use either one. She's, she has. They they have, right? It It has. Yes. It can be. It has. Not as often, but it can be. So how do we make this one? Well, you have the
regular subject, the, I, S, right? And then you have have
or has have or has, depending on the subject
of the sentence. So they have I have, she has, he has, we have. Then you might think
it's the simple past, but actually it's called
the past participle. Sometimes it looks
like the simple past, but then there are
some exceptions. So you have to look up the
past participle now, okay? Past participle. This is where you get
weird words like Bin, Bin, and we'll
look at that next. So Bin, done, seen, gone, right? If you have, for example, the word, the word gone. Well, I in the present
simple tense would be what? Go. But if I use the past, simple past, what would it be? Went, right? It's irregular. I go, I went. Well, so what is gone? Well, it's also about the past. It's a special type of thing
called the past participle. And not every verb
has a special one. Sometimes the past
participle is the same as the simple past tense. So they have visited. Visited is the
simple past tense, and visited is the past
participle. English is weird. Sometimes it's
different. Like been, like seen, like, done, like gone, like eaten,
like taken, right? So you just have
to look that up, and you just have to learn them. So the thing after has or has for the present
perfect tense, is the past participle.
9. Present Perfect Continuous: Okay. So now that you understand the present
perfect tense, now we get into some
crazy territory. Well, slightly more complicated. But using the same ideas, let's talk about the
present perfect continuous. This is for actions that
started in the past, started in the past and are
continuing now or actions that stopped very recently and have a connection
to the present. But if you understand the
present perfect tense, understanding the present
perfect continuous, I think won't be too hard. But let's explore some examples. She has been studying
English for five years. It has been raining
since morning. They have been working on the
project for several months. Okay? So what's
going on with these? Well, notice a few things. We have she has. It has, they have. So that part is the same as
the present perfect tense, H or has based on the verb, she has. It has. They have. Okay. But then, then we have been So Bin is the past
participol of B, right? It is. But it's always the same. It's always been.
Always. She has been. They have been. We have
been. It has been, I have been, you
have been, right? It's always been. And then
we have an I and G verb. So we know how to use the I and G when we want something
that is going on, something that is continuing. So Use this most often
when something started in the past and is
still going on. So we looked at the
example before with our present perfect
tense, which was, I have lived here for about
12 years, you may now wonder, k. So, I understand that, but can I say I have been
living here for about 12 years? And the answer to that
question is, absolutely. In fact, I think it's better. Why is it better? Well, because
it's this ongoing thing. I am living here. If I
say, I have lived here, It could confuse some
people maybe it's correct, but some people might wonder, Okay, so, do you
still live here? Yes, I do. Oh, okay. Well, it might be better to use the present perfect continuous. I have been living here. She has been studying
English for five years. It has been raining
since morning. Now, often we use a duration. A duration is a period of time. Four, 12 years, four, five years. Four 10 minutes. It can be 10 minutes. I have been sitting here
waiting for 10 minutes. I'm still waiting,
and I have been. Now, that's where you can say that something stopped recently. If now you come back
from doing something, and now I'm not waiting
anymore and we stand up, and I say, I have been
waiting for 10 minutes. What's taken you so long? It's so close to the present
to right now, right? I'm not waiting anymore, but it finished so recently, that it's also usually
okay to say it like that. So a duration, F, 10 minutes, four, five years,
412 years, right? F 30 seconds, often a duration. But you can also use words like since to say when it began. And that's pretty common, too. So if it's for ten years, or if it's since 2018, right, that could
be the same thing. Have to calculate how many
years, but it's the same. The beginning point suggests the duration between now
and the beginning point, a different way to say it. If I say, it has been
raining since morning, That's not a very
specific period of time, but let's say that's I don't
know, seven or 8 hours. So could I say it has been
raining for seven or 8 hours? Absolutely. Absolutely.
Yes, you can say that. That's totally
correct. They have been working on the project
for several months. And that's not very specific. It could be three or four, maybe five, right? I don't know. It doesn't have to be very, very specific all the time. I could also say they have
been working on the project since about March, right? And that's also not very specific because I'm
not exactly sure. Maybe since Q one, right? Since March or April, you don't have to be always
super super specific, but it's just a different
way to talk about duration. So again, when we use the
present perfect continuous, we have the regular
subject, we have or has, we have been, which is the
past part is simple of B, and then we have a
good old I and G verb. So in that sense, it's pretty simple because you
don't have to think about too much when you're speaking in the present
perfect continuous.
10. Past Perfect: Okay, past perfect tense. This tense is used
for actions that were completed before another action in the past. Are you confused? I hope so. So think about it. Think about your life
as a timeline, right? You have an action
that was going on. And we'll talk about
the continuous. Don't worry. We'll get there. There's an action. And then another action,
a different one. But neither of them are now, both of them are in the
past, but they're different. So how can I talk about that? Well, you could say
things in order, you could say, I went
here, and I ate, this, and I spent
this much money, and I talked to this
person, you can do that. But sometimes, it's important
to link actions together, because maybe one action
stops another thing, or maybe there is some
important context. And a simple example
that I like to use is when I watched the
Lord of the Rings, the two Towers, Maybe six times in the theater when I was a kid? I loved that movie, and I went to see it a crazy number of times in
the movie theater. Well, let's say
I'm talking about, I'm about to go into
the movie theater for the sixth time, right? Well, how many times
did I watch the movie? Did I go to that movie
before the sixth time? Five, right? Now, if I'm Little Luke at the movie theater,
what will I say? Which tens will I use? Back then, I will say, I've
seen this movie five times. I'm walking into the
movie theater with my friends or maybe
alone. I don't remember. I'm walking in there, and I say, I've seen this movie five times. This is my sixth time, because we're talking
about now and something that's true about me now
about the past, right? I have been to
France three times. I have seen this
movie five times. This is my sixth time. But Now, I'm not Little Luke. Now I'm a old man, Luke, but I still want to talk
about that in the same way. I want to talk about
that sixth time, and I want to refer to the
five times before that. So how in the world
can I do this? How can I talk about
the five times before the sixth time if I'm not walking into the
movie theater right now, but I'm living as a much older
person, 300 years later. Well, I can use the
past perfect tense. And the structure of
it is exactly the same as the present
perfect tense in a way. Except that the point of the
action that maybe you could say end point or
important point that I'm talking about is in the
past, not in the present. For the present perfect tense, the important point that I'm
talking about is now, right? Now this is true
about me, right? I have written two books as of this moment.
I might write more. Well, I had been to or seen the movie five times already before I went into the theater
for the sixth time, or I had already seen the movie five times if I'm telling
the story of that time. I remember I went to the
theater with my friends. I was very excited about it, and they were really angry at me for giving away details and talking about things
because they hadn't seen it. I had already seen
it five times. So you can see that I'm saying something that was
true about me now, except that now is
me many years ago in 2003 or whenever that
was. Do you get the idea? No, yes, let's go
through some examples. By the time you arrived, the meeting had already started. So the meeting started
before you arrived, and then later you arrived. Did you arrive now?
No. This could be 20 years later or two days
later. We don't know. But I'm talking about things
that happened in the past. This tense is very useful
when you're giving context about things in a story when you're talking about
some past event, right? That's how to use this one. That's when it's really useful. I had read the book before
I watched the TV series. Did I watch the TV series? Yes. I watched the
TV series last week. Did I read the book? Yes,
I read the book before. I had read the book
before I watched the TV series because both
things are in the past. And this happened
to me recently. It was three body
problem on Netflix. And that was last week that
I watched it with my wife. And I said, while we were
sitting down to watch it, I have already read the book, she hadn't read the book, I had. So when I was there
in that moment, we were about to turn it on, I said, I have already
read the book. But now me talking about
me from a week ago, I say, I had already read the book, when I watched the TV series, when I watched three
body problem, right? So that's the idea.
One more example, before she moved to New York, she had found a job. So that is a thing
that happened. She moved to New
York in the past. Before that thing happened, another thing happened,
she got a job. So you could say it's not
wrong to say she got a job, and then she moved to New York, two simple past actions. That's okay. If
it's important to have that context
about the move, it may be better to use
the past perfect tense. And you can flip it around. Before she moved to New York, she had found a job or she had found a job before she
moved to New York, either one of those is okay, right? Both are correct. Now, what about the structure? Well, kind of the same thing. I had read. So there instead of have, we just have, I have
read, she had read. We had read, they had read. It's had every time with
the present perfect tense, sometimes we use has
and sometimes have. With the past perfect tense, it's always had, had had had. Okay? And then read or watched, we use that past participle, Ben De watched, red. Remember, sometimes that looks like a regular past tense verb. And sometimes it looks weird. And it looks weird
because it's weird. It's weird because it is weird. It's weird. It's
definitely weird.
11. Past Perfect Continuous: Now, we might be getting
into a bit of a rhythm here. I hope you're starting
to see the connections. As we go from simple to complex, we're building from one thing to the next. We're building. We're understanding how the
continuous stuff works. And once we understand
that, we get that, okay, there's an
ING going on here. And we understand how the simple present
and past work, right? We start to get an
idea about that. We start to get an idea about this present,
perfect thing, these perfect tenses, which are kind of weird because they
have these participles, and they have a word
in the middle, right? Like have or has or had, right? And we're also maybe
realizing that hey, they can continue to. So we have the present perfect
continuous or progressive. Now, what about the past perfect continuous or progressive, the past perfect
progressive tense? It's the same idea, actions that were
happening before, and up to a point when
another action happened, in the same way that we said, I was watching TV when Boom, the light bulb shattered, or the window broke,
or the phone rang. Some thing interrupted, a thing that was
ongoing, me watching TV. This is the same basic idea. We've got something going on, and then another thing
that ends that thing that had been going on, right? So actions that were
happening before, up until another
time in the past. So let's look at
some examples here. They had been walking for hours before they
found the village. She had been studying all
night before her exam started. The garden was flourishing
because it had been raining
consistently for weeks. I failed my exam because I
hadn't been sleeping enough. So let's look at some of the differences with
these examples. They had been walking for hours before they found the village. So finding the village ends walking This
thing was going on, this ongoing, very
tiring action. Well, they don't need
to do that anymore. Now they found the village, maybe they can rest, or
that's where they were going. That's their destination.
She had been studying for 48 hours straight
before her exam started. Well, the exam starting
ends the studying. So it started and it ended her basically cramming for 48 hours
straight before the exam. So in one way, we kind
of end something, some thing starting or happening ends some ongoing thing
that was happening. But slightly differently,
the garden was flourishing, because it had been raining
consistently for weeks. The garden flourishing
is not ending the rain. That's not the cause
of the rain ending. That's just context, right? If you want to explain that in the present perfect continuous, the garden is flourishing
that's currently true because it has
been raining for weeks. And maybe the garden is
not flourishing anymore, but it was flourishing
Now it's very dry, and the weather is not as good, and we want to understand why. Well, the garden
isn't doing well now. I'm kind of
disappointed about it, but it was flourishing
last month. Well, why was it flourishing? Why was it doing so well? Because it had been raining
consistently for weeks. Now it's not raining
consistently for weeks, but leading up to that garden really
flourishing, it had been. But again, it's not
that the garden flourishing stops the rain. The rain may or may not have stopped during the flourishing. That's not really the point. The point is to
add context or add an explanation about something
that happened in the past, or perhaps something that
was true in the past. That is how we use it. Now, how do we
structure this one? Well, they had been
walking for hours. So simple subject, they, right? I, you, we, it. Same thing. It's all the same. Had been so, we
don't change hat, it's always had had had Ha Ha. Then Bin, just like we have for the present
perfect continuous, we do the same thing
for the past perfect. The differences that we're using instead of
have or has, right? They had been studying. They had been walking,
and then we just have a regular ING verb. Notice with these,
if you want to say a simple past action that
stopped an ongoing action, like they found the
village, that's fine. But if you also want to use a past continuous
tense, that's fine too. The garden was flourishing. Right? That's an ongoing thing
that was true in the past. That's not true anymore. And then an explanation
of the context, the thing that had been happening up to
that point, right? To explain why it was true. And by the way, you can do
the exact same thing with the present perfect tense in
the example with the garden, I think I said the garden
is flourishing because it has been raining
consistently for weeks. It's the same basic idea. We're just shifting that
back into the past. Hopefully that makes sense.
12. Future Perfect: Let's talk about the
future perfect tense. Yes, there is a
future perfect tense. This is for actions
that will be completed before a specific
time in the future, actions that will be completed before a specific
time in the future. Often you hear this one with by, by next year, for example,
usually, almost always. So by next year, I will have
graduated from University. We will have cleaned
the entire house by the time you get here. By the end of the quarter, we will have surpassed
$3,000,000 in revenue. So what's going
on with this one? By next year? So I'm giving a sort of time
point in the future. Next year is, I suppose a pretty large period of
time, but it's not now. It's in the future, okay? I will have graduated. Have graduated means
that it's done. It's a thing that is complete. We're talking about maybe a
process that is completed, but it's completed in the future at or by a certain
period of time. So it may feel a bit
weird to talk about that. Usually, we talk about things getting done in the past, right? But it makes sense to talk about things getting
done in the future, too. It's that often, when we
talk about the future, we're talking about the event or the start of
something, right? I will start attending
university next year. Well, yes, but what
about the end? Well, By the end, I will finish. Okay? Well, how do I talk about that whole completed thing that I finished? And
when it happened. This is where the future perfect
tense can come in handy. Can be very useful. By next year, I will
have graduated. We'll talk about the
structure in a second, but notice the use of the past tense to talk
about the future? What? What? What? We will have cleaned the entire house
by the time you get here. Are you here? No. Wh
will you be here? Let's say in 2 hours, right? You're driving. And
you're driving here. And the i heard the house is a mess.
Mother is coming home. I heard the house is a mess. She calls her two young
kids who are at home. I heard the houses a
mess. I'm furious. W We will have cleaned the entire house
by the time you get here. So it will be done. And so in a way, it's passed. It's passed in the
sense that it started. It happened, It's finished. But it's finished, not
yet, but in the future. When, by the time you
get here, in 2 hours. So you can you know
drive and be angry, but by the time you arrive,
it will be finished. It's like predicting
a past event. Think of it that way. I kind of like to think
of it like that. Because k it's one of these verb tenses that kind of hurts your brain to
think about, right? Think of it as predicting what will be true
about the past. Because once you get to that future point next year in 2 hours, it will
be in the past. It hasn't happened yet, but we will get there, and once we get there, This thing that I'm talking
about will be in the past. And so when we talk about it, we will say it's finished. It's done. I graduated. It's completed, right? It has been completed. So that's why we use the
past tense of the verb. Basically, it's a prediction, and it's a way to talk about
this kind of prediction. We will have cleaned
the entire house by the time you get here, by the time you get home. By the end of the quarter, we will have surpassed
$1,000,000 in revenue. Have we surpassed $1,000,000? No. Okay. Let's say it's Q. It's February. We only have $300,000 in revenue.
We're falling behind. But we have some big
deals coming up, and these deals will be signed before the
end of the quarter. And so don't worry. Once we get to the end of this quarter, and we look back
at what happened, we will say, Wow, we did it. We surpassed $3,000,000 in revenue. Our goal was 2 million. But, wow, look at what we did. We surpassed $3,000,000 in revenue because we
signed this deal. Okay, so that's easy to talk about when it's at the
end of the quarter, and we're talking
about the past. But what about when
we want to talk about that milestone
in February, easy enough if you're using
the future perfect tense. By the end of the quarter,
we will have surpassed $3,000,000 in revenue.
And you can reverse it. We will have surpassed
$3,000,000 in revenue by the end
of the quarter. So you can flip it around. It goes either way. So how do we build this one? Well, it's pretty simple. I will, we will, you will, she will, It will, they will. Okay? So we're using W, right? Now, remember what we said
with the simple future, right? With that, after will, we don't we don't
change the verb. And so this one is always have. It never changes to has. We'll have, always,
we will have. He will have, she will have. They will have, it will
have, always. That's simple. That makes it a little easier. You don't have to think about
subject verb agreement. When you're using the
present perfect tense, you do have to think about that and it can be a bit annoying. She has seen we have seen. But for this one, because
we have will there, will kind of cancels out that need to have subject
verb agreement. And because will cancels out that need to have
subject verb agreement, we get to use Hal
every single time. And then, guess what? You
use the past participle. So we will have done it by then. We will have cleaned the entire house by the time you arrive. We will have done it by then. So it is the past participle.
13. Future Perfect Continuous: Finally, let's talk
about the future perfect continuous or the future perfect
progressive tense. Okay? Now, hopefully,
everything we've learned up to this point will
make this pretty easy. Hopefully, we'll
look at examples. But let me know if you
have questions, of course. We've come a long way. We've learned a lot of hopefully interesting things about verbs. I know grammar is boring, but. I think it's cool as well. So the future perfect
continuous tense. This is for actions that will be continuing up until a
specific point in the future. So think of it in a similar
way to the future perfect, except we have continuous
things, right? And we do have a
time point usually. So Some examples, by
the time she retires, she will have been working
here for 45 years. What's the time, the
time she retires? Maybe she has ten years
left before she retires. It's in the future
anyway, right? So we set a future point, and then we say something
true about that, right? Except it's an ongoing thing. And that ongoing thing refers to the past
when you get there. So when you get to her
date of retirement, you say, How long have
you been working here? Sally? And she says, I've been
working here for 45 years. Okay. So that's easy enough. That's the present
perfect continuous. I have been working
here for 45 years. But now she's been working
here for 35 years, and I want to talk about
ten years in the future. Well, how do I do that? She
will have been working here. It's not now. It's in ten
years. And I can say that. In ten years, she will have been working here for 45 years.
You don't have to use By. By is often used for an action,
right, retiring, right? It doesn't have to be, though. It could be a specific
time. You could say by 2046, that's okay, too. You can use in to
talk about time. By and in, these are very
common ways to talk about or refer to specific
times or durations. So by the times you
retires in ten years, by 2046, however you
want to talk about it, you set that future point. You're setting
that future point. And at that future point, when people get there,
which is in ten years, they will look
back and they will make a statement that is
true in their present. It's not true now because
it's in ten years. They will make a true statement about the present
about the past, in the present, about the past, referring to the past. What will they say? Well,
they'll say, I've been here. I've been working
here for 45 years. This July, we will have been living in this
house for ten years. So maybe it's maybe
it's June now, so that's next month, right? So this July, maybe it's
earlier in the year. If it's usually, if it's
earlier in the year, we would say this July. And if it's June now, we'll say next month, right? So, it's June now. Next month, we will have been living in this house
for ten years. This July, we will have been living in this
house for ten years. Well, that's the
same idea, right? I'm setting a time point. And when we get to
that time point, we will turn our heads back. We will look into the
past, and we'll say, Golly G, look at all the
time that we've lived here. Why we've been living in
this house for ten years. It's not true now. Now it's
nine years and three months. Now it's nine years
nine years, nine years and 11 months, if
it's June, right? So we can't say it.
We can't say it. But next month, we will have been living
here for ten years. So that's great when
you want to say, we have a big
milestone coming up. It's often used to talk
about a milestone, some thing that is in the
future on the horizon, right? And when we get
there to that thing, that time point,
that's important. That's a milestone. We will be able to look back and describe
something impressive, using the present perfect
continuous tense, using the present perfect
continuous tense. Now, what about the
structure of this one? In many ways, it's similar to, it's the same as the
present perfect continuous, present perfect
progressive tense. The only difference is
will. I, you, he, she, they will will, will, will have been living, have been working,
have been talking, have been making, right? It's the same. That
part is exactly the same as the present
perfect continuous. We have been living
here for ten years. Because that's what we will say, then we say we will have been
living here for ten years. That makes it pretty
simple, right? In terms of structure,
it's no different. You have the subject,
you have will, then you use have, and then bin. Now, the only difference
there is that you don't change the verb or has,
depending on the subject. She will have, he will have, you will have, I will
have, they will have. That never changes
because we have will. Remember, will deletes the need to have subject verb agreement. She has been working. I have been working. We have been working.
Notice we're changing the verb
based on the subject. But when we have
will in the middle, we're not doing that. We
don't need to do that. We're just using. And then we have the past
participle specifically Bin. And yes, it has to be Bin. Bin, Bin, Bin, for this one, and then the ING verb. That is the basic
structure. Okay. So hopefully, this one is clear.
14. Final Thoughts: Now that we have all
of the verb tenses, now that we've gone through
them in depth with examples. Now that we've talked
about the structure, how we put them together. What I want you to do is
practice, practice, practice. Make your own examples. If you don't understand
something, ask a question. That's very important.
If you don't understand, ask a question. Once you understand,
make many examples. When you make examples,
you build a habit. One problem with learning things is that people just learn
it and say, I know it, but it fades over
time because we don't transfer something
from knowing to habit. If you want to really get it, you have to move it from
I get it, I know it, to I really get it, because I've practiced
it many times, and I don't have to think
in order to use it. I want you to master the tenses, to really do that, you really have to make your own examples. You have to use these a lot so that using them
becomes muscle memory, so that when you're speaking, when you're communicating,
when you're telling stories, when you're saying
what you have done or had done or will have done, you can say what
you want to say, and you don't have to freak out, stress out about which
tens you should use. Why won't you have to do that? Well, you will have mastered the tenses through practice because that's the only
way to do it, okay? I'm here for you if
you have questions, but you have to put in the work. You have to be the
one to practice until all of these
become habits, and you will thank
yourself when you do that. You will thank yourself
when you don't have to worry about which
verb tense to use. I hope all of these
have been clear. I hope you've enjoyed this epic journey through
English verb tenses. It's been quite a
journey, indeed. Never hesitate to reach
out if you have questions. Share your examples with
me. I want to see them. So now that you're
working on that, where do you go from here? What do you do next? Well, keep learning. I have a lot of other courses
on a lot of other things, on grammar, on writing
professional skills, using AI tools to
improve your English, how to think in English, pronunciation, and
much, much more. So check those out.
Leave a review on this course to let me
know how you felt about it. I would really love
to get your feedback. So good luck out there as you continue to hone
your English skills, to work toward English fluency. Good luck. Keep practicing. Keep asking, and I will
see you in the next one.
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