Have you ever introduced yourself in English and then wished you could rewind
time to try again? Something just didn't sound right.
Perhaps you weren't sure about the right details,
word choices or English grammar tenses. If that sounds familiar,
then today let's make sure it never happens again.
Whether you're starting a conversation at a friendly party or stepping into an
elevator with your company CEO,
you and I both know that that first impression is crucial.
And if that first impression includes an English introduction,
then the right details and the right grammar are important as well.
In this Confident English lesson today,
we're going to explore the essential English grammar tenses.
You need to introduce yourself flawlessly.
No more second guessing or doubts over whether to use the present,
past or future forms.
And to do that we'll also explore real-life situations where you'll meet new
people,
like meeting a new neighbor or attending a professional networking event.
At each step, I'll share with you practical,
easy to follow examples so that you can practice and perfect your English
introductions.
Plus I'll share tips to help you always sound personable,
professional, and polished. By the end,
you'll not only boost your English grammar skills,
but also your confidence any time you need to introduce yourself in English.
And that means that you'll be ready to make memorable impressions that open
doors and help establish new relationships.
So if you're ready to elevate your English introductions, keep watching.
Now, before we go any further, if this is your first time here, welcome.
I'm Annemarie, an English confidence and fluency coach.
Everything I do is designed to help you get the confidence you want for your
life and work in English.
If you'd love to find years of lessons for me as well as free
resources,
you can get all of that and more at my Speak Confident English website.
While you're there,
you'll also find my in-depth English fluency training called How to Get the
Confidence to Say What You Want in English. And with that,
let's go ahead and dive in. There are four key things I want to go over today.
Number one, why is it important to master your English introduction?
What are some common mistakes that I hear?
Then we'll briefly review the essential grammar tenses you need for an English
introduction,
and I'll end with some real-life examples that you can use to
practice and perfect your introduction. So first,
why spend time mastering your English introduction? Is it really that important?
It absolutely is, and here are three reasons why.
Getting your English introduction right will help you make an impact and
open the door to future conversations.
It can also help you create a connection to others and reduce any potential
awkwardness in an initial conversation. And lastly,
a strong English introduction can help you leave a lasting memorable impression
on others.
And professionally it can help you demonstrate authority and expertise.
So what are some common errors I hear when it comes to English introductions
before I share these with you, there's something important to talk about.
If you hear one of these mistakes and you think, oh, I've made that mistake,
I feel terrible.
Or if you're feeling frustrated that English introductions feel
so hard when they should be pretty easy, let me stop you right there.
The truth is,
there's nothing wrong with making these mistakes because we are learning.
That's why you're here.
And it's okay if introductions feel hard at the beginning.
I often ask my fluency school students how many times they've introduced
themselves in their native language.
How many times have you introduced yourself in your native language?
It's in the thousands, right?
You've had ample practice introducing yourself in a variety of
situations, and as a result, it's easy. You don't even think about it.
You automatically say what you need, using the right details, the right grammar,
tenses at every step.
And our goal today is to help you have the right structure and
opportunities to practice so that you start to perfect your English
introductions as well. It's okay if this takes time and practice.
So here are some potential mistakes that we're going to learn how to avoid with
this lesson today. First,
using the wrong verb tense when talking about actions in progress. Right now,
for example, I read three books.
Now a second mistake using the past Simple to talk about
experiences. For example,
I traveled to China before third using the present continuous to
talk about unchanging facts or situations. For example,
I am knowing Yulia since high school. And finally,
one more example of a common mistake using state of verbs in the present
perfect continuous form. For example,
I have been liking this area since I moved here. With these mistakes in mind,
let's transition into the grammar tenses you need to use in English
and the correct way to use those grammar tenses so that your introductions are
flawless.
We're going to review six common grammar tenses used in English
introductions. We'll briefly look at the simple present, the present,
continuous, the simple past, the past,
continuous present, perfect, simple and present, perfect continuous.
Then I'll share with you some real-life examples that highlight how we use these
verb tenses. So first, the simple present is used for unchanging facts.
That includes facts such as your name, your age, your nationality,
your profession or job title, personal details,
preferences and so on. And for talking about those details,
you're likely to use sentence starters such as I am my names I'm
from, I majored in,
I specialize in my current focus is I
enjoy and I'm the or. I'm uh, for example,
I'm the accounts manager, I'm a teacher.
I'll be sharing more elaborate examples with you in a moment.
But for the time being, let's take a look at a very quick,
very short introduction you might use that only highlights personal details and
as a result, all the sentences are in the simple present. Hi,
my name's Lydia.
I'm from Ukraine and I'm your new neighbor from across the hall.
Or perhaps in a job interview you might say, hi, I am Laura.
I'm a new graduate from Howard University and I specialize in public health.
And now let's move on to the present continuous or the present progressive.
We use this verb tense for ongoing or current actions and events.
We also use them when something is temporary and we can use it to talk about
future plans as well. And just in case it's helpful,
here's a quick reminder of the structure we use for the present continuous.
We always have the present form of the verb to be followed by an
ING verb,
and here are some common sentence starters highlighting that I'm starting a new
position I'm currently working on, I'm learning about,
I'm hoping to, I'm running a, I'm helping with,
and now the simple past for actions that started and ended in the past.
They are completely finished.
This is where you'll use sentence starters such as I graduated from,
I lived in, in other words, you no longer live there.
We moved here in, for example,
we moved here in 2010. That year is finished.
It's over. So we used the past tense. I went to or I traveled to,
they recruited me. I started my first job in,
I was a, for example,
I was a teacher and then I became an administrator. If, for example,
you're introducing yourself to your new team and your introduction includes a
detail about your previous job, you might say Before joining your team,
I worked in healthcare for eight years.
Or if you're introducing yourself to someone casually and you want to share a
little bit about where you're from, you might say,
I lived in Bogota for most of my life and then I moved here to pursue my
career in copy editing.
Now let's move on to our three final verb tenses for today.
The next one is the past continuous or past progressive.
We use this verb tense to highlight two actions that were happening
at the same time in the past.
An action that was ongoing for a particular time in the past,
and finally we use it in sentences that highlight one action
interrupted another action that was ongoing
at some point in time in the past.
The structure that we use here is once again the verb to be however it's in
the past tense. And then we use our verb with the ING ending.
For example, I was studying and working at,
or we were managing and organizing, I was helping with,
I was working at X when, or we were planning two x.
When in both of those situations,
of course you would insert a particular company or team department where you
were working at that time or something that you were planning to do and then it
was perhaps interrupted. For example,
if in an introduction you want to highlight some of your past experience and
previous responsibilities, you might say, at that time,
I was managing a team of 20 people and meeting with new clients every day,
or we were planning a move to Alberta when my husband got a new
offer from his current employer and we decided to stay here and now the present.
Perfect.
This one tends to cause a few headaches and so let's go over it carefully and
look at several examples.
This one incorporates the past time and the present
time,
so we use it for events or actions that started at some time
in the past and they're not finished yet.
They're still happening right now or something is still true right
now. As a result, this is the verb tense we use to talk about our experience,
achievements and career duration. Think about your career for a moment.
If you are still active in your career, it's not finished.
So when talking about your career over time,
we're highlighting experience. Your career is unfinished.
Now for this verb tense, we always followed this structure.
The verb has or have followed by the past participle
a better way to think about the past.
Participle is the third form of the verb.
This is very easy with verbs that end with Ed in the past, simple.
For example, I have worked,
if you go back to some of your earliest English lessons and think
about memorizing those verb charts such as eat eight,
Eaton, drink, drink drunk,
that is the third verb form, Eaton drunk and so on.
In addition to sentence starters such as I have worked or I have worked for
eight years, you might also hear someone say, I have been named.
This is often used to highlight an achievement or if someone is getting an award
of some kind, we have traveled to, I have seen,
heard or felt, I have known, I've never tried,
I have planned and I have dealt with. When we talked about the past, simple.
I shared a sentence with,
I worked in the healthcare industry and by using the past tense form,
it indicates that I no longer work in the healthcare industry.
I've transitioned to something new. However,
if I want to talk about my career experience in my introduction,
I might say something like this,
I have worked with startups before and I've successfully dealt
with common obstacles,
building a client roster and now our final verb tense,
the present perfect continuous.
I often get the question if there's much difference between I've worked here
for three years or I've been working here for three years,
and the truth is English speakers tend to use those interchangeably with no
difference in meaning. However,
here's where the present perfect continuous is particularly helpful.
We might use it to describe ongoing activities and interests,
highlight temporary or new situations and talk about repeated
or ongoing situations that started in the past.
To use this verb tense correctly, we need to keep this structure in mind.
The verb has or have followed by bin and then a verb in the ING form.
For example, I've been learning, I've been reading about,
I've been researching, we've been enjoying,
I've been working at this company for,
I've been working at this company for eight years. We've been living here for,
and our kids have been going to,
our kids have been going to that school for three years.
Let's say that you've recently met someone and in the small talk exchange and
in part of your introduction you highlighted that you love reading books and so
does this other person,
so you give them a book recommendation based on something that you have been
reading. For example, lately I've been reading the Covenant of Water.
It's so good. Now that we have those essential verb tenses in place,
I want to share with you three real-life scenarios,
real-life introductions that incorporate these various verb tenses.
With each of these scenarios or each introduction,
you're going to see that I follow the same structure present past future.
Each one starts with a present focus to introduce oneself.
Then each one transitions to the past tenses to highlight relevant
background information,
and finally at the end there's a future oriented statement that highlights
enthusiasm or some kind of hope for what's next.
This is a great structure to follow for common introductions both
casually and professionally. So for scenario number one,
let's imagine that you are introducing yourself at the start of a job interview.
When the interviewer begins with, tell me a little bit about yourself.
You might say this, thank you. I'd be happy to share a little bit about me.
I'm a marketing professional with over 10 years of experience.
So far I've worked with three pharmaceutical companies. Currently,
I'm seeking a role that will challenge my creative skills and allow me to apply
my expertise.
I'm highly interested in this position and your company's mission aligns with my
own. I'm looking forward to learning more about you and the company.
In this formal introduction,
you can see that the speaker used three different verb tenses.
The simple present to highlight facts about herself that are unchanging.
Then the present,
perfect to highlight experiences that are connected to the present. And finally,
the present continues to highlight ongoing thoughts and expectations.
And now for scenario number two,
let's imagine you're introducing yourself at a book club. Hi everyone.
My name's Ava, and I'm an avid reader Like you,
I have two kids in university and they always recommend contemporary fiction.
I joined your book club to expand my reading horizons.
Lately I've been reading historical biographies and historical fiction related
to the golden age. Thank you for having me today.
I look forward to diving into this month's book. Here this speaker.
Use the simple present to highlight those unchanging personal facts and to
highlight a common routine.
Then she uses the past simple to highlight a finished action and she used
the present perfect continuous to highlight an ongoing action that started in
the past is true now and likely to continue into the future.
And now one more. A super important introduction anytime you move,
introducing yourself to a new neighbor. Hi,
I'm your new neighbor across the hall. My name's Jessica.
Yesterday was quite busy and I didn't get a chance to introduce myself.
My husband and I have just moved here from New York.
We love the spacious units in this building.
Do you know any great cafes in the area? In this casual introduction,
we have several different verb tenses.
First that present simple for those unchanging facts. Of course,
we have the past simple to highlight a finished action.
Then she uses the present perfect to highlight a recently finished action
that is relevant to the present moment.
Now that we have these three real-life example introductions and a thorough
overview of the verb tenses you need for a flawless English introduction,
I think you know what's coming next.
I want you to practice that is the key to making introductions
easy in English. And I have a couple challenges for you. Of course,
you can use the examples I've provided here as a kind of template for
your own.
That's a great way to get started and then you can make adjustments as you need
to.
I also want you to try introducing yourself in different circumstances.
So just like I shared here, we had a formal introduction and a job interview,
and then we had two casual examples,
one for a book club and another for introducing yourself to a new neighbor.
I have a few situations I want you to consider, and as always,
you can share your examples with me in the comments below.
So challenge number one,
how would you introduce yourself to a stranger at a friend's party?
Challenge number two,
how would you change that introduction if you were attending a formal work
event and you were meeting one of the executives at your company for the very
first time? And finally, challenge number three,
how would you introduce yourself to a new coworker at a casual after work
happy hour event? With that, I want to say thank you.
Thank you so much for joining me. If you found this lesson helpful to you,
I would love to know. You can tell me in a couple of simple ways. Number one,
give this lesson a thumbs up here on YouTube and make sure to leave a comment
down below. Number two,
you can also subscribe to my Speak Confident English channel so you never miss a
future lesson. And finally,
you can also jump on over to my Speak Confident English website and download
some of my free training materials to help you gain fluency and confidence in
your English. Once again,
thank you for joining me and I look forward to seeing you next time.