Thank you for this great post. It’s really awesome and it has made these troublsome tenses so clear and easy.
Ps I don’t know if i could use troublsome here but for me they are really troublsome.
thanks again
dear brothers and sisters
i would like to thank all of you for your friquently messages reflicting your attepts to improve our english language
i injoyed your unique nethods to make us familiar withthis language .
you discribed ing your message the very good day wich has no clouds where we in arab countries like the cloudy days because it is always suny .
i will rewirite to you as soon as posible .
with my best wishes.
yours
mohajir
Dear Alan,
I follow your lesson alot and thank you verymuch for yourprogramme, Now i try to improve myEnglish and please help me the proficiency of listening & speaking
Best Regards,
nalong ss
Savannakhet, Laos
Hi,
There is no such word as ‘alot’ in standard English. You need to write ‘a lot’.
Also:
very much
your programme
I (not i)
my English
hi
i’m glad i rcieved this essay . it was very usful to me to understand the present perfect well’
best regards
amani
Hi Alan Sir,
Thank you for your Essay Perfect Time. For Example for Present Perfect:
I have learnt English from you for two years. or
I have learnt English since Septemper 2009.
Please let me know what I wrote is right or not?
Thank you
S.Shanthi
Both of those are correct.
dear
the real challenge in life is not just getting what u want but continue to want what you have. many people have learned how to get what they want.than they no longer enjoy it. they are always feel as they are missing something, whatever they get is not enough. they are always not happy with themselves, their relationship, their health and almost their work. there is one more thing to disturb there peace of mind.
yours true pleasures,
Dhananjay Bathe
Hi
Right now I am starting to Bangalore with my friends to visit all places there,
I will be back after 3 days. I want to enjoy with my friends and want to say bye
to all of you…
I never feel unhappy whatever problem I face, secondly I am really happy what I
learnt, learn and will learn in future, there is end for learning any language,
only thing we should take into account how far we learnt, how far we should learn
further, threse two we should think ourself and keep developing ourself without
expectation of others rewards towards us.
Thank you
S.Shanthi
dear Alan
thank you for your great lessons and it helped so much
your faithful
Sullom
What is the difference between a past participle tense e and present past?
The Difference between past participle and present participle.
Lessons learned easily are soon forgotten
learned - Past participle , qualifying the noun Lessons".
Seeing the sunshine, I threw open the window. (seeing present participle, Governing
the noun Sunshine.
If you attend grammar Exercises and Sir Alan’s Grammar stroies will clear all your
doubts.
Thank you
S.Shanthi
Hi Alan,
I am sorry. Long time not postingin this forum. I have been working full time since 2010. But trust me I always read your essay. Thanks Alan.
Warm regards,
Roy.
hi to every one
how can I read different years in english ? for example ,2010 or 1980 or 1009
Is there any specail rule ?
2010 - either ‘two-thousand and ten’ or ‘twenty-ten’.
1980 - ‘nineteen-eighty’
1009 - ‘ten-thousand and nine’ or ‘ten-oh-nine’.
Where the first two digits are ‘10’ or ‘20’ you have two options.
Dear Alan,
Excuse me that I begin my letter with your letter.
"Hi,
In my latest newsletter I’ve tried to explain why the tense that I’ve used just now is called the Present Perfect Simple. Seems strange doesn’t it to mix present and past together? If you’re interested, read my letter and I hope it becomes clearer."
I can say that I know how to compose all English tenses. My difficulty to create the accord among them. In your brief letter above there are :
2 present perfect,
2 passive present
4 simple present -1 with question tag
1 imperative mood
1 infinitive
I read several times your Lesson 116. I became familiar with it. This is the single possibility to learn the tenses what I need. What is a native is manifest, for a foreigner is strange.
My favorite part was:
"The question is how can ‘perfect’ and ‘present’ sit happily together? Let’s look at it like this -what is perfect is finished, but then we don’t know when it finished because if did, we would go back to the past simple which I discussed in my previous news letter.
Remember that this sort of ‘perfect’ is often recent, not attached to any particular time and when we use it, it mostly refers to what we are talking about."
About the use of the present perfect continuous comes into my mind an arguing between you and Beeeneeez. It was very humorous but one single thing remained in my memory that its use couldn’t be simple.
Many thanks I can say: something begins to dawn on me. This is the most difficult thing in English because if you know its use means you can express your style also, can’t you?
Regards:
Kati Svaby
Perfect, is all I have to say, you always surprising me with the details and forms that only you know, perfect as always thanks.
Perfect tenses
1. Present perfect is always with connection with now.
a.the action in the past has a result now:
-Look! Somebody has broken the window.
b. you can use when something has just/already/ yet happened.
-He has just arrived home.
-I’ve already posted it.
-I haven’t posted yet.
yet (+) (already) yet(-)(still)
Have you done your homework yet.
I haven’t done my homework yet.
c.If we are interested whether something happened.
-Have you ever seen an osrtrich?
-Have you ever been to London?
d.If something happened several times.(once, twice,three times etc)
I have been abroad twice.
e.The first, the second, the third occasion that we have done something.
This is the second time that I’ve seen the film.
f. If something has never happened in our life.
I have never seen a serpent.
g with adverbs of time: today, tonight, this morning, this evening, this afternoon, this week, this month, this year, this summer.
-We have had three meetings this month.
h with the next expression: so far, recently, lately, still…not, in the last few weeks/months/years, up to now.
-I have understood everything so far.
-I haven’t seen him recently.
-We’ve talked a lot about you lately.
-I still haven’t finished it.
-I haven’t met him in the last few month.
i.Where-if we ask where he has been before our question.
-Where have you been?
-I’ve been at the doctor’s
j. If sth began in the past and it lasts in the present.(we don’t want to stress the process)with:for,since,(prepositions)-how long? since when?(question-words)
-He has known his girlfriend for six years…(we stress the result)
-They have been married since 1962. (we stress the process the duration that’s their relationhip has not been finished.
important: some verbs (know/like/believe/hate/love/want/ prefer/know/ realize/ suppose/ mean/ understand/ remember, belong, contain, consist, depend, seem) that are normally not used in the continuous.
I’ve known about it for a long time.
Hello, some sentences with present perfect from: Making conversation.
-Haven’t we met somewhere before?
-I think I have met him once before.
-Have you ever met him?
-No, I have not met him.
-You have grown since the last time I saw you.
-Your English has really improved since you began to learn.
-The rain hasn’t stopped.
-Have you been to Mexico in the last year?
-I have had three tests in the last week.
-My car has broken down three times this week.
-We just got married.
In the last sentence it is interesting that in conversation they can omit the helping word: have.
correction: pronunciation of duration