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Hi, I’m Oli.
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Welcome to Oxford Online English!
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In this lesson, you can learn about using
the verb ‘be’, and test your English grammar
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skills!
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Are you a beginner?
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Or, are you a high-level English learner who’s
been studying for years?
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This lesson will have something for you whatever
your English level is.
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You’ll see many ways to use the verb ‘be’,
from the most basic uses to complex structures.
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Want more free English lessons?
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Check out our website: Oxford Online English dot
com.
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You can also book English classes with our
fully-qualified teachers, who can help you
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with your English speaking, writing, IELTS
preparation, or whatever else you need.
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One more thing: do you want to watch this
video with subtitles?
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You can!
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Turn them on now by clicking the ‘CC’
button in the bottom right.
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Here’s how this lesson works.
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There are five levels.
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Each level is more difficult than the previous
one.
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Level one is beginner.
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Levels two to four are intermediate.
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Level five is high intermediate to advanced.
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If you’re not a beginner, start at level
two!
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At each level, you can see what you need to
focus on if you have difficulties.
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Ready?
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Let’s start!
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Here are five sentences.
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Complete the sentences with one word.
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Pause the video and think about your answers.
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If you want extra practice, say your answers
aloud!
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Ready?
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Here are the answers.
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Did you get all five right?
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You should probably fast forward to level
2!
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Did you make a mistake?
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Here’s what you need.
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One: you need to know the positive forms of
‘be’, including the past forms: ‘was’
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and ‘were’.
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Here they are.
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Pause the video to look if you need more time.
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You also need to know the negative forms of
‘be’.
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Here they are.
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Again, pause if you need time to look.
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You can see that most negatives have a contraction,
or sometimes two.
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You should use the contraction most of the
time when you’re speaking.
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It doesn’t matter which contracted form
you use.
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Ready?
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Let’s go to level two!
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Here are your five sentences.
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Complete each sentence with one word.
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Contractions – like ‘isn’t’ – count
as one word.
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Again, pause the video to think about your
answers if you need time.
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Ready?
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Here are the answers.
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What’s the point here?
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You can use ‘be’ to make continuous forms.
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Continuous forms have many uses; for example,
you use continuous forms to talk about something
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happening at one moment in time.
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For all continuous forms, you need to remember
one rule: ‘be’ plus -ing verb.
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*All* continuous forms need both things: ‘be’
and a verb with -ing.
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There are other continuous forms – you’ll
see some of them later!
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Let’s see all the forms for the present
continuous, past continuous, and future continuous.
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You’ll see forms with the verb ‘go’
as an example.
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Each list will appear for three seconds; pause
the video if you need more time to look.
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Also, don’t forget that you can see all
this information on the free lesson page on
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our website.
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If you’re watching on YouTube, you can find
a link in the video description.
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What about sentence number five?
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Did you get it right?
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Do you find it strange?
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You can use ‘be’ in the continuous, normally
to talk about people.
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You use it when someone is behaving in a way
which isn’t normal for them.
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For example, if you say ‘She’s being so
impatient at the moment’, you mean that
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she’s generally a patient person, but she’s
behaving impatiently now.
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Maybe she’s under a lot of stress, and it’s
having an influence on her.
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When you use ‘be’ in the continuous, you
have the verb ‘be’ twice, like ‘she’s
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being’.
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This might look strange, but ‘be’ follows
the same rules as every other verb.
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You make a continuous form by using the verb
‘be’ plus an -ing verb.
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That’s the end of level two.
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Remember that you can always review a section
if you need to.
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Here are five more sentences.
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This time, you need to complete each sentence
with two words.
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One word should be a form of ‘be’.
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Remember that contractions – like ‘isn’t’
– count as one word.
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Ready?
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Here are the answers.
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So, what’s the idea here?
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You can use ‘be’ in different times and
tenses, like any other verb.
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‘Be’ has perfect forms, like ‘have been’,
‘has been’ and ‘had been’.
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‘Be’ doesn’t behave differently to other
verbs here.
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Sometimes we hear questions like “How do
you use ‘have been’ and ‘has been’?”
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What’s the difference between ‘have been’
and ‘had been’?
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These aren’t questions about using ‘be’.
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If you’re asking these questions, you need
to learn more about perfect tenses.
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‘Be’ can also be used in the future, with
verbs like ‘will’ or ‘going to’.
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Like you saw in level two, you can have the
verb ‘be’ twice in one sentence if you
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use a verb like ‘be going to’, which contains
‘be’.
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In number three, the first ‘be’ – ‘isn’t’
– is part of the verb ‘be going to’,
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which you use to talk about the future.
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The second ‘be’ is the main verb.
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It goes with the word ‘late’.
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If you’ve got everything right so far, you
know a lot about English verb forms and how
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to use ‘be’.
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Ready for level four?
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This time, let’s do something different.
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Here are five sentences, like before.
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This time, there is a mistake in each sentence.
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Can you correct the mistakes?
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Pause the video, and think about the corrections.
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Write your answers down, if you want.
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Ready?
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Here are the answers.
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Can you see what connects these five sentences?
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They all involve the passive voice.
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To make the passive voice, you need two things:
‘be’ plus a past participle.
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Often, English learners make mistakes like
these.
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Sometimes, they forget to use ‘be’ in
a passive sentence, like in sentence number
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one.
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Sometimes, they add ‘be’ where it isn’t
needed, like in sentences two and five.
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Be careful, because remember that ‘be’
is also used to make continuous forms.
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And, there are passive continuous forms.
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Do you mix these up?
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It’s not always easy, but there are simple
rules which work.
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Continuous forms use ‘be’ plus an -ing
verb.
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This rule has no exceptions.
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Passive forms use ‘be’ plus a past participle.
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This rule also has no exceptions!
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So, in sentence four, you have a continuous
form: ‘was being’, and a passive form:
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‘being cleaned’.
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They overlap,
but they follow the rules.
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‘Be’ plus -ing verb, and then ‘be’
plus past participle.
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If you have difficulties here, then study
continuous forms and the passive voice.
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Pay attention to passive continuous forms,
so that you can avoid mistakes with ‘be’
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like you saw in our examples.
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OK, let’s move on to our last level!
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Here are your sentences.
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You need to complete the missing words.
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This time, you can use one or two words.
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At least one word in each gap must be a form
of ‘be’.
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How did you do?
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Here are the full sentences.
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So, what’s this about?
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Like every verb, ‘be’ has infinitive and
gerund forms.
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You can see this in sentence number one.
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The sentence is passive, so you need – remember?
– ‘be’ plus a past participle.
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But, you’re using the verb ‘like’, which
needs a gerund.
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So, ‘talk’ is passive, but *also* a gerund:
‘being talked’.
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Usually, we talk about infinitives and gerunds
like they’re single things.
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But, there are different infinitives.
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There’s an infinitive with ‘to’, and
an infinitive without ‘to’.
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There are also continuous infinitives – ‘be
being’ – and perfect infinitives – ‘have
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been’.
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The gerund – being – also has a perfect
form – having been.
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You often need the different infinitives with
modal verbs.
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Modal verbs don’t have past forms, so if
you want to express a past meaning, you need
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to use a perfect infinitive after the verb.
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For example, look at sentence number two.
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Think about the difference between these two
sentences.
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‘Would’ is a modal verb, so it doesn’t
have a past form.
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‘I would like to be there’ could mean
now, or in the future.
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To talk about the past, you need a perfect
infinitive: ‘I would like to have been there.’
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You can see a continuous infinitive in sentence
three.
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The room is in the process of being redecorated
now, so you use a continuous form.
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It’s also passive, so you need the verb
‘be’ twice – once for the continuous
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form, and once for the passive form.
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Sentence four uses a perfect gerund, and is
also passive.
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Perfect forms need a past participle, and
passive forms also need a past participle.
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This means you have two past participles in
a row: ‘been involved’.
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Confused?
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It might take time to get comfortable with.
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However, if you could understand the previous
parts of this lesson, then you have the tools
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you need to understand and form sentences
like this.
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These sentences don’t require new rules
or ideas; they require you to combine rules,
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because they combine multiple verbs.
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However, each step follows a simple, predictable
rule.
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What about sentence five?
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This looks like a gerund, although technically
it’s a participle.
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Participle clauses like this are a way to
add extra information to a noun.
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In this case, the subject of the sentence
is ‘he’, and the participle clause gives
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us extra information about him.
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You use a perfect participle because you’re
talking about the past as well as the present.
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If you want more practice on this topic, check
out the full version of this lesson on our
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website: Oxford Online English dot com.
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If you’re watching on YouTube, there’s
a link in the video description.
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You’ll find a quiz to help you practise
the use of ‘be’, including basic and more
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advanced uses!
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Thanks for watching!
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See you next time!16165
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