all right hi everybody welcome back to
our weekly live stream my name is alicia
and today we're going to talk about how
to talk about your achievements from
2019 with past tense and present perfect
tense and past perfect tense this is our
last live stream for the year so i
thought this would be a nice topic uh to
practice with everybody so as you join
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way hello everybody in the chat i see
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everybody thanks very much for joining
us and happy holidays wherever you are
in the world as i said today we're going
to talk about how to talk about your
achievements so achievements means the
things that you were able to do like
your successes for the year
so i thought this would be a great live
stream uh topic to end 2019 with so
today as always i've broken it into
three different parts it's a little hard
to see but we'll zoom in so don't worry
about that
so we're going to start
in just a moment
if you have not already do be sure to
like and share the video where wherever
you're watching on youtube or facebook
if you're watching on instagram i can't
see your comments live so please keep
that in mind so i am going to share the
video and then i am going to begin
today's lesson
so uh today i'm going to break the
topics i'm going to break the grammar
points into three parts i'm going to
look at using a simple past tense simple
past tense to describe your achievements
and then we're going to practice uh
present perfect tits present perfect
tense including present perfect
continuous and then i'm going to talk
about past perfect so we'll do some
grammar review of the maybe most
requested grammar points from 2019 for
the year so
let's begin with simple past tense first
simple past tense
uh a reminder when do we use simple past
tense so we use simple past tense for
actions that started and ended in the
past so i've done this many times in
live streams and in lessons but just to
give a visual just to give kind of an
image to help you
see the differences between these
grammar points if we imagine
on a timeline
where here
this star
is now
this direction is the future
and back here is the past we can imagine
simple past tense is used to talk about
an action an activity whatever
that started in the past so if this x is
my start point and this is my endpoint
or whatever so the action started and
ended in the past everything happened
before the conversation yeah so there's
no relationship to the present this is a
difference with the other grammar points
in this lesson so started and ended in
the past
okay
so let's take a look then at just some
sample sentences uh that use simple past
tense to express uh an achievement so
for example
this sentence
i created
i created a website
a website for my company
so this is just a sample like a work
achievement that you can think about
so
a couple points here first obviously the
simple past verb here i created i
created so create is the regular the
infinitive form of the verb in past
tense it becomes created created so
created
a simple past as i said is a good
vocabulary word to use here i want to
mention uh and this is good for those of
you who are like studying english for
interviews or studying english for work
uh or maybe practice uh writing resumes
and so on your resume is your work
history by the way
so when you're
talking about your achievements with
words like this try to choose specific
words like created for example instead
of made
so words like do or make are very
general but it's a good idea to be
specific and choose vocabulary words
that kind of have some punch to them so
instead of i made a website like i
created a website so that kind of shows
that from xero to the product you were
in charge of it
so this is our first example another
example uh let's change industries we
built
a house
for
our
client
so different industry here however i'm
using a different uh i'm using a
different verb obviously and this is not
a regular verb so a reminder about
simple past tense
not all verbs end in ed so regular verbs
conjugate with this ed ending to make
simple past tense
build however is not a regular verb yeah
build becomes built in simple past tense
so we built
a house for our clients we built a house
for our clients or we built houses for
our clients as well so please keep in
mind there are like regular
verbs that end in ed in simple past
tense and then there are irregular verbs
like a built built in this case
okay so your task then hard to see here
but your task for everybody watching
live or not is to describe something you
achieved in 2019 describe something you
achieved in 2019
so while you're thinking and while
you're typing i will write a couple more
example sentences so here's one
we'll change the subject again
she
designed
a hotel
last year
she designed a hotel last year so in
this sentence my simple past tense verb
is this
design
and design design is the infinitive form
of the verb in simple past tense it just
takes the ed ending this is a regular
verb she designed a hotel last year
so as i was talking about earlier using
design here is a little more specific
actually a lot more specific than saying
like she made a hotel last year like
what does that mean so design is clear
like what was she in charge of the
design of the hotel she designed a hotel
last year okay some examples are coming
in great uh andrew andrew says i
improved my english with the help of
your channel woo that's great happy to
hear that awesome uh andre says i
learned many phrasal verbs fantastic
great great great uh on facebook i don't
see any yet lots of people saying hello
great okay
fair on youtube says i found out about
english class 101 this year great ashu
says i created a youtube channel great
great great uh abdel says i moved to a
new town three months ago good see ham
says i discovered your channel one year
ago very nice example sentences ah on
facebook now uh i planted roses last
year i bought a house last year okay oh
boy says i cried in singularity means
alone so talk let's talk about maybe
your achievements let's try to focus on
the positive aspects of the last year
for today to end the year on a positive
note okay i'll share one more example uh
this one
uh again different topic
he won
an award
he won an award
for
his
research
okay he won an award for his research so
again i'm using an irregular verb an
irregular verb here my verb is win in
past tense it's one
one so not one
like korean money but one one like the
number one
so he won an award for the preposition
that we use here is four he won an award
for
his research four noun phrase so if you
win an award or some kind of other like
prestigious i don't know recognition
you could say i won past tense i won an
award for something for some reason i
often see many learners using present
tense here like i win something like
that i won an award for
this thing
so okay great some examples are coming
in
uh i'll read a couple and then we'll
move along
on
oh my gosh did i just see that on
facebook it said i became a us citizen
last month where was that that was
awesome where was it ah
maybe it'll appear here in a second oh i
hope i missed it i think dang it all
right on uh if that was true if someone
actually did say they became a u.s
citizen last month awesome
congratulations that's huge that's very
exciting
um
on youtube kat says is this live at
christmas time i can't believe it yes
it is live it is live
uh
cot.com says i completed my software
course last week great fantastic
congratulations okay
uh others
uh he won a race again and received a
gold medal says lucas fantastic okay
nestor says i acquired a set of english
skills looking back on 2019. fantastic
many of you are writing about improving
your english or i improved my english in
2019. that is fantastic that's really
really great to hear i'm happy for you
guys
someone says i graduated a course in
clinical uh something the comments are
going very fast
okay monday says i earned my phmd last
year wow congratulations that's amazing
awesome there are lots of cool
achievements from all around the world
that's awesome okay so with that so
simple past tense practice let's take
one quick break and then we'll move to a
different grammar point this one uh so
we're going to practice uh present
perfect everyone's favorite present
perfect uh and present perfect
continuous so quick break i guess we
don't need the web the second camera
today i can talk at it but we'll see uh
so if you missed it earlier uh of course
as always like there's free pdfs for
everybody if you check other links but
for this week there is this sale there's
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for the end of the year there's a bunch
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that for sure all right with that let's
continue to part two for today's lesson
if you have not already uh please do
make sure to like and share this video
so that other learners can find today's
lesson our last lesson of 2019 today's
topic is how to talk about your
achievements the things
that you achieve the things you did your
successes for the year
then let's carry on to part two part two
for today is about everyone's favorite
grammar point present perfect tense
present perfect tense and i'm going to
cover uh continuous as well
so
first let's take a look at when we use
this so a review moment a moment of
review we use the present perfect to
describe actions that started in the
past and that continue to the present
this can also refer to the effect of an
action that continues to the present so
i showed you i showed you this
lovely diagram for simple past tense for
an action that started and ended in the
past so everything is finished there's
no relationship to the present
let's compare this then to present
perfect
so similarly i'm not going to write all
the things if this star again is now
imagine that when we are using present
perfect tense were describing
this action that started in the past and
then it continues
to the current moment it continues to
the conversation so this action is still
true or the effects of some action uh
affect
the present effect and effect sorry uh
so
let's uh let's keep this point in mind
this is a key difference with simple
past tense
excuse me okay so let's take a look uh
at a couple of example sentences i will
use simple i will use uh the continuous
form
a little bit here uh so let me see what
shall i introduce to you first okay
let's go with this one so
uh i'll use this
i've been
working
so here's the grammar point i've been
working
on a new series
for a year
and
it's nearly done
okay
so what is happening in this sentence
first i'm using present perfect
continuous here right here i've been
working i've been working
i've been working on a new series so new
series actually this is true i've been
working on a new series a new video
series this is true for me
for a year and it's nearly done so this
means
for a year i've been working on this
thing so that means one year ago about i
started this activity and it
continues to this present point in time
so i've been
remember this i've is the reduced form
of i have i've been working i've been
working so some of you might say like
what's the difference why can't you say
like i've worked on a new series for a
year the reason i chose to use the
continuous form in this sentence is
because i want to emphasize that this is
not done yet like i'm still actively
though slowly working on this uh this
particular project so when i want to
emphasize the continuing nature when i
want to emphasize that something
is not finished yet it's still in
progress i would choose to use this
continuous form i've been working on a
new series for a year
all right let's look then at one more i
have a couple of expressions that i want
to introduce to everybody actually so
this next example sentence will do that
uh okay
this next one is
as of this month
i've managed
our team
for
five years
okay as of this month i've managed our
team for five years so first
here
is my present perfect grammar i've
managed i've managed so you'll notice in
this example sentence i'm not using the
continuous form i'm not saying i've been
managing our team for five years so the
reason that someone would probably
choose this instead of the continuous
form is because it's like you're just
stating a fact i just want to state a
fact about like uh the situation in my
workplace so starting five years ago and
going to now like until now
uh this has been the situation so i
started being the manager five years ago
i continued to be the manager it's just
a simple fact so i'm not like
actively doing a project maybe it's my
position
and that's all i want to mention so
i've managed our team i've managed our
team for five years
the other thing that i want to point out
here is this expression
as of this month as of this month in
particular i want to focus
on this as of point in time
so this means
it's like saying from this point in time
so as of like today or as of uh last
month whatever that means from that
specific point in time
this thing is true so this means as of
this month for example december now i've
managed our team for five years so that
means this sentence was not true three
months ago it means from this point in
time but we don't
maybe generally all we wouldn't say
maybe some people might say like from
this month but this one tends to sound a
little bit clearer as of point in time
this thing is true so starting at this
point in time this thing is true so as
of that's what as of means here
okay
uh
some examples are coming in i think some
people yes are using the continuous i've
been studying english for a year good uh
there's one someone says is this
american english yes this is american
english okay uh monday says i've been
working as an expert neurosurgeon for 26
years well really that's cool super cool
uh
as of next year
uh uh oh bori on facebook as of next
year i will have seen your english or i
will have watched your english videos
for 100 years well i know it's just a
joke comment as of next year so if you
want to use this point i just talked
about to talk about a future situation
so as of next year you need to use a
future tense expression to do that today
i'm focusing on past and
perfect tense expressions past perfect
but you can use a future tense so as of
next year i will have lived in this city
for 10 years something like that i will
have something so
you need to consider a future and past
when you use this too all right on to
another example sentence one more
uh
my next one
similarly i want to introduce a key
phrase
so far
this year
so far this year
our team
has opened
six restaurants
okay
so we imagine we are working in the
restaurant industry for the purposes of
this sentence okay so
first our present perfect is right here
so our team our team
has opened our team has opened so we're
using has here because it's like it our
team so we're not thinking of this as we
we're thinking of team in the same way
as we think of like the subject it so a
team is it here so our team
has opened six restaurants my other key
point is this so far this year in
particular this so far this year
so if we imagine maybe we say this
sentence in october
so far this year so that means
uh
from the beginning of the year until
this point in the year this is our
achievements this is what we have
achieved so using this
so far this year sounds like there's
still time for more things to happen so
this kind of has a little bit of like
optimism so there's a bit of like a
positive feel here yeah so it's like so
far this year we've done this
but there's a chance we can continue or
there's a chance we can do more as well
so so far
plus a point in time so far this year or
like so far this month or so far today
so it sounds like this is what i have
done up until now
and there's a possibility that more can
happen
okay uh i think i have one more oh
uh maybe i don't have time for one more
uh i will yeah okay i will
not include my last example sentence
because time so
okay i am looking for your example
sentences um
i don't see any i don't really see any
on facebook right now there's one marion
says as of this year we've reached one
million youtube followers really is that
true congratulations as of this year we
have three million youtube followers
we're approaching 3.5
maybe soon woo thanks to everybody who
watches us
lucas says so far this decade my
basketball team has won three finals wow
that's cool very nice it's very nice
uh khan malit says so far this year i've
learned new programming languages okay
nice you might include the number there
to be specific like so far this year
i've learned two new programming
languages like being specific is great
and for um
when you can use these grammar points
yes today we're talking about it because
it's the end of the year but this stuff
is really good to use in interviews and
like on your resume and like when you're
um talking to people for work for work
purposes
all right quick break and then we'll go
to the last point for today's lesson
okay so uh if you have not checked it
out yet uh there is this week of course
instead of our regular pdfs there is a
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look see what you think
okay let's go to the final point for
today's lesson the final point for
today's lesson is past perfect and past
perfect continuous another tricky
grammar point also if you have not
already please do make sure to give this
video a thumbs up and share it as well
so that other people can find our lesson
today
all right teacher do you have the flu uh
the teacher alicia has a little bit of a
cold she's mostly recovered though uh
she just sounds a little stuffy so
stuffy means i'm congested the word is
congested the casual word is stuffy i'm
kind of stuffy
that means my nose is kind of
uh
tight i guess all right anyway moving on
to the last point past perfect so past
perfect and past perfect continuous
again when should we use these grammar
points what is this even for so past
perfect we use to talk about a past
action
obviously past is in the name a past
action
continuing so a past continuing action
i'm sorry you can't see a past
continuing action but this past
continuing action has a relationship
to another action in the past so there
are usually
two things two past actions or past
activities we need to consider when
we're talking uh when we're using past
perfect and past perfect continuous we
often use this grammar point when we're
talking about an interrupted action or
like when we want to talk about
something that happened in the past at
the same time as something else so i'll
share some examples of this
also a hint for your writing that for
whatever reason many native speakers
don't get
if you are writing something like if
you're writing a even a diary entry or a
journal entry when you practice
if you need to talk about two past tense
situations in the same sentence
use past perfect tense sorry use past
perfect tense to talk about the earlier
thing so whatever is the furthest thing
in the past use past perfect tense for
that then use simple past tense for the
thing that was most recent to the
present so i have it written here i'll
say it again if you need to talk about
two past tense situations in one
sentence use past perfect to refer to
the earlier one and simple past tense
for the other so this is something that
i think a lot of native speakers don't
always do so let's take a look at some
examples of how to do this
all right a long one
uh
okay here we go
i'd
been
studying
computer science i'd been studying
computer science
for three years
what was the ending of my example
sentence for three years when i got my
first job good uh when i got
my first
job at
an it company okay so this is a great
sentence for you like that you can use
on
a like a letter of introduction or you
could say this sentence in an interview
so let's break this down first you're
past perfect past perfect in this case
continuous i'd been studying i'd been
studying computer science so
this right here is a key i'd i had been
studying computer science for three
years when right here this when is
important
because this is marking the other past
activity marked here with simple past
tense when i got my first job at an i.t
company so this sentence uh it's kind of
hard for me to fit another timeline in
so i'll put it here so here what we're
seeing in this sentence again same
timeline as before
we're seeing this action
studying computer science i've made this
too short studying computer science
started three years or
continued for three years yeah so at
this point
the speaker began studying computer
science it continued for three years and
then right here
the speaker got his or her first job at
an i.t company but this all happened
before the present conversation
so we're showing this relationship by
using
past perfect for this action
continuous to show that it was
continuing and then simple past tense to
mark the point of the second action the
second past action so this is the how we
use past perfect and simple past tense
together i'd been studying computer
science for three years when i got my
first job at an i.t company so this when
marks the point at which a new action
kind of enters what does it mean
information technology information
technology it's quite long so we usually
say i t
phew okay do i have time oh for one more
example sentence no no oh no
oh no no no really oh man
i will say one can i just say one okay
my other one uh my other one was weed
completed all the design updates by the
time the app launched weed completed
all the design updates by the time the
app launched i will write it but i won't
explain it weed
sorry
i'm in trouble we had completed
all the design updates
by the time
the app launched okay i will write it
there
what i really wanted to talk about with
this sentence was the expression by the
time by the time so if you've studied a
little grammar you know we use by to
mark deadlines so that means uh up until
this point so we were able to do this
uh
by this point so this is like marking a
deadline that's the difference between
by the time and when
maybe i can talk about that in a live
stream
in the future
we'll see i'm out of time and i'll be in
trouble if i keep talking oh i can go
forever so i'll stop there uh so this is
a little more advanced grammar point uh
where you need to consider the
relationship between two past actions
but this can really
help to make your
your past experiences your expressions
of your past experiences are richer and
a little bit deeper too so
i have to finish there okay
uh some examples are coming in i'd been
playing basketball for three months when
i moved to this city so make sure your
second verb is past tense past tense
there
uh all right so i have to end there wow
just like that 2019 is finished that was
a super fun year thank you very much to
everybody for joining us this week and
thank you very much for watching us live
and for joining us live for sending your
example sentences and your questions and
your funny comments we really appreciate
it we really appreciate you joining us
every week
we will of course be back next year uh i
think it next the next week the one
right after new year's like on january
1st i don't think we're gonna be able to
i think we might have a holiday i might
have a holiday so
for sure
unless something mysterious happens uh
the next one will be january 8th i
believe
of course if you want to be absolutely
sure you can set a notification on
youtube or a notification on facebook to
make sure that you don't miss our live
lessons so the next live topic will be
oh yeah how to make your english study
plan for 2020 so i know maybe many of
you need a little boost at the beginning
of the year for your language goals so
i'll talk about how to make your 2020
english study plan
so again thank you all very very much
for watching us live and for
participating with us live throughout
the year we really really appreciate it
if you like please make sure to have a
look at the stuff this our big sale for
the end of the year i hope you find
something that is helpful for you i hope
you have a very happy holiday and a
wonderful new year and
enjoy your time off we will see you
again in 2020 bye bye