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Hi I'm Martin.
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Welcome to Oxford Online English.
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In this lesson you can learn about English
verb tenses.
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Are you confused about your simple, perfect
and continuous tenses?
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Do you know how many verb tenses there are
in English?
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In this lesson, you can get a big picture
understanding of English verb tenses.
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You’ll learn what connects English verb
forms, which will make it easier for you to
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learn and understand verb tenses in English.
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Let's start with an overview of the topic
so that you understand what you're dealing
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with.
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Every English verb form has two parts.
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The first part is the time: past, present
or future.
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The second part is the aspect: simple, continuous,
perfect, or perfect continuous.
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So, there are three times and four aspects.
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You can combine these in twelve different
ways.
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Pause the video if you want more time to look
at the table.
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Let’s do a quick test.
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Can you recognise these three verb forms?
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I was having dinner this time yesterday.
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He’s been sitting there for hours.
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Where will you be next week?
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Do you know the answers?
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Let’s check!
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In the first sentence, the time is past, and
the aspect is continuous: it’s past continuous.
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In the second sentence, the time is present,
and the aspect is perfect continuous: it’s
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present perfect continuous.
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In the third sentence, the time is future,
and the aspect is simple: it’s future simple.
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You don’t need to remember all of this now.
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What you should remember: all English verb
forms are made of these two parts: time plus
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aspect.
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One more point: different teachers, books
and courses sometimes use different words
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for these things.
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For example, some books use the word ‘progressive’
instead of ‘continuous’.
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So, instead of ‘present continuous’, they
say ‘present progressive’.
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Other words have the same problem.
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For example, the words ‘tense’ and ‘aspect’
are used in different ways by different people.
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Our advice?
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Don’t think too much about the words.
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Focus on the ideas.
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I understand it can be confusing, but this
is really not your problem that people don’t
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use these words consistently!
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Next, let’s talk more about time.
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I said we’re going to talk about past, present
and future, but really, we’re mostly going
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to talk about the future.
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Why—why is the future different?
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English verbs have past and present forms.
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For example:
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be – was
do – did
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want – wanted
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So, to make a present form past, just change
the present verb to the past verb, like this:
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I go shopping once a week.
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→ I went shopping once a week.
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She’s running in the park.
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→ She was running in the park.
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We haven’t seen it yet.
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→ We hadn’t seen it yet.
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It doesn’t matter if the aspect is simple,
continuous, perfect or perfect continuous.
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Using a present or a past verb decides whether
the meaning is present or past.
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That’s almost too simple, right?
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But what about the future?
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There are no future verb forms; you can’t
change the verb to make it future.
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So, you have to add something before the verb.
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For example:
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I’ll be waiting for you outside the station.
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When are you going to tell her?
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He might join us later.
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Now, you can see why the future is more complicated.
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There are many things you can add before the
verb to give it a future meaning.
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You saw examples with will, be going to and
might, but there are other possibilities.
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It’s also very common to use present verb
forms with a future meaning, like this:
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What are you doing this weekend?
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Class starts at 10:00.
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So, talking about the future is more complex.
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There isn’t one way to give a verb a future
meaning in English, and there’s also a large
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overlap between the present and the future.
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What should you remember from all this?
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Remember that every verb has only one past
form, and only one present form, but there
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are many possible future forms.
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There isn’t one ‘future tense’ in English.
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Now, let’s talk about aspect.
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Look at three sentences:
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I went to Rome last year.
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I go to work by bus.
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I’ll go with you.
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What are these three verb forms?
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They’re all simple: past simple, present
simple, and future simple.
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You can see that for the past and present
simple, you just use the present or past form
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of the verb, without adding anything.
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For the future simple, you need to add something,
like will or going to.
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In general, simple verb forms describe two
things:
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One: single actions.
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Two: repeated actions or states.
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So, I went to Rome or I’ll go with you describe
single actions in the past or the future.
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I go to work by bus describes a repeated action
in the present.
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The present simple can’t generally be used
to talk about single actions.
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The present simple generally expresses repeated
actions or states.
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The past and future simple can be used to
talk about single actions, repeated actions
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or states.
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For example:
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I went to Rome every year until 2012.
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I’ll go with you on Tuesday and Wednesday,
but I can’t on Thursday.
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So, what about continuous verb forms?
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Let’s start with three examples:
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I was eating dinner at seven o’clock last
night.
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I’m eating a tuna sandwich.
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This time next week, I’ll be eating fresh
seafood on an island!
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These three sentences are all continuous:
past continuous, present continuous and future
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continuous.
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Can you see what connects them?
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First, all continuous forms use the verb be,
together with an -ing verb.
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So, to make a continuous form, take the verb
be in the past, present or future, then add
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your main verb with -ing on the end.
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For example:
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She was telling me a really interesting story.
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They aren’t helping at all.
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It’ll be getting dark at five o’clock.
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What about the meaning of continuous forms?
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Can you see what connects these examples?
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Continuous forms describe things which are
incomplete.
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Generally, continuous forms are used to talk
about one moment in time.
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So, you say I was eating dinner at seven o’clock
last night because you’re talking about
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a moment in time (seven o’clock), and something
incomplete—you hadn’t finished your dinner
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at that moment.
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In the sentence She was telling me a really
interesting story, you’re talking about
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a moment in time when she was in the middle
of her story.
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You use a continuous form because, at that
moment, she hadn’t finished her story.
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Okay, but what about perfect verb forms?
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Again, let’s start with some examples:
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He hadn’t finished speaking.
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She’s finished all her homework.
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We‘ll have finished everything by Friday.
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What do you notice?
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All perfect tenses use the verb have in the
past, present or future form.
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After have, you use a past participle to make
the perfect form.
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So, for example, to make the past perfect,
you take the past form of have, which is had,
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and add a past participle.
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For example:
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We hadn’t thought about it.
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I had never tried miso soup before.
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For the future perfect, take the future form
of have, which could be will have, and add
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a past participle, like this:
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I’ll have finished all my exams by this
time next year.
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What about the meaning of perfect verb forms?
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Can you see anything which connects these
three sentences?
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Perfect verb forms connect two points in time.
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For example, He hadn’t finished speaking
is past perfect.
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This connects two different times or actions
in the past.
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To understand this, you need a longer sentence
with more information.
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For example:
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He hadn’t finished speaking when everybody
started to leave.
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The perfect form connects the two different
actions.
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This is the best way to think about perfect
verb forms: perfect verb forms connect two
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points in time.
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How does this work in the present?
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This is present perfect.
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What two points in time does this connect?
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It connects the present and the past.
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She’s finished her homework in the past
(before now), and now her homework is done
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and ready to be checked (in the present).
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What about the future?
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This is the future perfect.
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In this case, it connects the present to a
point in the future.
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When you say We’ll have finished everything
by Friday, you mean that you’ll finish everything
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some time between now and Friday.
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You don’t know exactly when you’ll finish
everything, but you know that it will be somewhere
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in this period between now and the future.
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Finally, let’s look at perfect continuous
forms.
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Here are three examples to begin:
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She’d been feeling much better.
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We’ve been waiting for ages.
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By the end of the day, we’ll have been working
without a break for 14 hours.
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What do you notice?
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You can see that perfect continuous forms
are a mix of the perfect and the continuous,
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which is logical, right?
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They’re perfect forms because they use a
form of have plus a past participle, which
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in perfect continuous verb forms is always
the same: been.
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They’re continuous forms because they use
be plus a main verb with -ing.
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How do you set the time of a perfect continuous
form?
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You set the time by changing the form of have.
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Use a past, present or future form of have,
plus been, plus a verb with -ing.
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Let’s practise!
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Here’s a sentence in the present simple.
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I walk through the forest.
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Can you change this sentence into the three
perfect continuous forms: past, present and
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future?
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Pause the video and try it!
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Ready?
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Let’s check your answers:
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I had been walking through the forest.
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I’ve been walking through the forest.
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I will have been walking through the forest.
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Did you get them right?
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Next, let’s talk about the meaning of perfect
continuous forms.
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Again, the meaning is a combination of the
two aspects: perfect and continuous.
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So, the meaning is perfect because these forms
connect two points in time.
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I had been walking through the forest...
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...when something else happened.
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For example:
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I had been walking through the forest for
hours before I realised I was lost.
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Like you saw before, the perfect aspect is
used to connect two points in the past.
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What about the continuous side?
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What meaning does that add?
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It adds the idea of something incomplete or
temporary.
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If you say, She’d been feeling much better,
this suggests she was feeling ill either before
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or after she was feeling better.
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00:15:42,230 --> 00:15:48,060
If you say, We’ve been waiting for ages,
you mean that you still haven’t got what
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you came for.
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00:15:49,550 --> 00:15:53,110
The action—waiting—is incomplete.
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If you say, By the end of the day, we’ll
have been working without a break for 14 hours,
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you mean that your work still won’t be finished
at the end of the day.
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00:16:03,330 --> 00:16:10,050
The past and future perfect continuous forms
are rare, but you still need them sometimes.
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Okay, so now you’ve seen an overview of
all the English verb forms.
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First of all, remember that this lesson is
meant to give you the big picture.
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You’ve seen what connects different English
verb tenses, and how verb forms are different
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from each other.
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However, you’ve seen the most general connections
and differences.
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This can help you to understand English verb
forms, but remember that every English verb
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form has its own specific uses and meanings.
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Want more practice for this topic?
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Make sure you check out the full version of
this lesson on our website.
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It includes a quiz to help you review and
practice what you've learned in this class.
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That’s all from us.
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Thanks for watching!
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See you next time!18910
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