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  • Hi. I'm Rebecca from engVid. In this lesson, you're going to start using the present perfect

  • tense right away in an easy way. Now, a lot of students get a little bit scared of using

  • the present perfect tense, but you don't have to be, especially after this lesson. I think

  • you'll find an easy way to use it, and a reason to use it. Okay?

  • So, first of all, just very quickly: What's the present perfect tense?

  • It sounds like this.

  • It sounds like: "I have skated." or "I have flown." Right? So, what does that

  • mean? When I say: "I have skated many times in my life." it means that at some time in

  • the past, I did something and it's still true today. Okay? So just as we can talk about

  • things that we have done in our lives... For example: "I have seen that movie.",

  • "I have read that book." Correct?

  • The same way, you can also talk about what you have never done,

  • because I'm sure that there are some things that you've never done, just like there are

  • some things I've never done. So, we can use the present perfect to describe these actions

  • as well. So, I'll show you what I mean? Okay? There are many good examples on the board.

  • So, let's look at this. So, for example, with that sentence that I gave you at the beginning:

  • "I have skated many times in my life." Now, actually, that's not true. I have never skated,

  • okay? Even though I live in Canada, I have never skated. So, that is how we can use the

  • present perfect tense with the word "never". So, "skated" is a regular verb. Regular verb

  • means that in the past tense we add a "d" or an "ed".

  • "Flown" is an irregular verb,

  • so when we use it with the present perfect, we use the past participle. There's usually

  • like a third form, there's a long list, you kind of have to learn by heart, when you're

  • in school, when you're learning the present perfect, and you can practice it here because

  • you'll see many examples that I've written for you on the board.

  • So, here, we put the word "never" just before this last verb. Okay? So: "I have never skated.",

  • "I have never flown." Okay? What do I mean by "flown"? So, for example, flown by airli-...

  • By air. That's not true. In my case, I have travelled. But there are many people in the

  • world who have never had a chance to travel by air, so they... That person could say:

  • "I have never flown by air." Okay? All right.

  • So, let's look at many examples so you'll understand how to say something like this.

  • So, here I've got all the subjects, here we have the word "never", and here we have many

  • regular verbs, and here, many irregular verbs. So let's make a lot of different sentences

  • so you can hear the pattern of this type of sentence, as well as understanding the grammar

  • of it. So, here we have the subject: "I've". What is "I've"? "I've" is short for "I have".

  • Right? But when we are speaking in conversational English,

  • usually we don't say: "I have never flown."

  • or "I have never eaten..." No. We just say: "I've". Okay? So that's a contraction.

  • All of these are contractions that we use in regular conversational English.

  • So, let's make some sentences, now. "I've never visited China." Okay? So, here, we had

  • the subject, the word "never", the verb, regular verb, past tense form, and some more information.

  • Right? "I've never visited China.", "You've never talked to him before.",

  • "So why are you talking to him now?" somebody might say. Okay.

  • "We've never tried Korean food.",

  • "They've never played so well."

  • Let's say you're talking about a team, a sports team. Okay?

  • "He's never worked so much.",

  • "She's never lived alone." Okay? I'm going to give you this last one

  • in a... In a few minutes.

  • Let's take some of this... These examples, here. These are with irregular verbs. Right?

  • "I've never felt so happy.",

  • "You've never heard their music.",

  • "We've never eaten there before."

  • There, probably a restaurant. Right? "They've never seen that movie.",

  • "He's never slept so late.",

  • "She's never written to me before." Okay?

  • So, you see that with all of these subjects, we can use

  • the word "never" very easily. All right? You're using present

  • perfect, you're using "never" to talk about something that not at one time in your life

  • have you done before.

  • So let's see how to use it now with "It's". Okay? What kind of sentences can we make with

  • that? Let's say, for example: "It's never rained so heavily." Now, sometimes we use

  • the word "before". Okay? Or you can just say: "It's never rained so heavily. Wow. Look at...

  • Look at the weather, it's never rained so heavily." Or: "It's never rained so heavily before."

  • It means in all the time in the past till now. That's present perfect. It's always

  • talking about all the time in the past, including now. Or:

  • "It's never snowed so hard." Okay?

  • So, here's one example. Another example:

  • "It's never taken me so long to drive home." for example.

  • That's an irregular verb, here, "taken". Or, as you can say, I hope you'll say:

  • "It's never been so easy to learn English." Okay?

  • So, if you'd like to practice this, please go to our website: www.engvid.com.

  • There, you can do a quiz on this and many other topics in English.

  • And also, if you would like to get regular lessons to improve your English much faster,

  • subscribe to my YouTube channel.

  • Okay? Thanks for watching. Bye for now.

Hi. I'm Rebecca from engVid. In this lesson, you're going to start using the present perfect

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