Ah yes, a subject that often brings quite some confusion to English learners. The examples in the last couple of minutes were as clear as they can be. Well done as always.

@LetThemTalkTV

2 жыл бұрын

many thanks

I recommend you be nominated for the Nobel prize for being the best English teacher not just on youtube but on earth. I have been learning from you for many years. p.s. All the other English teachers are good, very good without a doubt. May God bless them all for teaching us English, but you are the best.

@GizmoFromPizmo

Жыл бұрын

Oy! Nobel Prize? Not hardly. Al Gore and Barack Obama are Nobel Prize winners and they're ignorant communists. Gideon, on the other hand, is brilliant. A Nobel Prize is well beneath him. We give the Nobel Prize to monkeys - not geniuses.

I’m so delighted I came across your channel one day. The more I live, the more I get to know about Present Perfect and Past Simple 😂 Dude, it’s been like over 10 years of studies, but there’s always smth new dang it😂 Thank you so much!

@LetThemTalkTV

2 жыл бұрын

We never stop learning.

@nicolendix608

Жыл бұрын

@@LetThemTalkTV 1лгр

Thanks to you for this content, I'm starting to watch it feeling regret that my understanding of Spanish grammar is more clear than English, despite that English was my first foreign language that I've learned.

You are a great teacher 🤗 you make me understand perfectly well 😮

Gideon thanks a lot for this explanation. My wife who is British wasn't able to explain to me the difference between the two. I make mistakes quite often. Being French it is to me one of the hardest part of English grammar to master (verb modality), phrasal verbs comes second.

your teaching is outstanding! Thank you so much!!!

English is my 1st foreign language, I've started learning it about 40yrs ago. For whatever reason I mostly get the grammar right just by the seat of my pants. Now it is my daughter who starts with English and I have to re-learn all the proper explanations - which a video like this is super helpful for.

I really appreciate your work❤ Great explanations as always😊

Great explanations. I've talked with people that get confused between present perfect and past perfect.

I simply love this video! The present perfect forms of verbs is one of my pet peeves and the one that makes me the craziest is the once where you ask if John had ever run a marathon. Almost everybody I know would ask, "Have you ever ran a marathon?" That kind of thing drives me up a wall! "Have you ever drove to Florida?" GAAA!!! "Have you ever driven to Florida?" This video has confirmed my righteous indignation :) I'm not that smart and I was always a very poor student but that part of my education I apparently received where others completely missed it.

A very tricky tense for my esl students .Thank you for your help

This is fun! Isn't it so cool to learn any language in this way! I have experienced "nativeness" while engaging in it.

Best explination ever. Thank you very much.

Dear Gideon and friends, I'd like to know your opinion about this textbook exercise: Sarah’s family didn’t go(not go)away on holiday this year. They stayed (stay)at home. Sara is happy because her new neighbors are (be) very interesting people. After she broke (break)the ice, she discovered that they had (have) lots of stories to tell her about their lives.. For me, the past simple is ok(Sarah's family didn't go). A friend from Portugal told me that it is "Sarah's family hasn't gone" because "this year" is a time period that continues and we don't use the past simple with time periods that continue...Thanks for your help :)

As a french, it took me several years when I was younger to understand the difference, as we lost it in the french language, 1 or 2 centuries ago. In modern oral french we only use the present perfect as the only past tense, and the simple present as the normal present tense.

@DeYiZhiMusilin

Жыл бұрын

That’s why you have such a huge discrepancy between the spoken language and the written French. Written French has a terribly complex grammar, I daresay even more complex than Latin. But in the spoken language, on se fout de presque tout 🤓

My favorite example is what Clive James said in a Parisian nightclub: "I felt like a visitor from another planet, which I guess I WAS, and always HAVE BEEN." - try expressing that sentiment in a language without the "past simple/present perfect" option.

@lennat24

Жыл бұрын

In German: "Ich fühlte mich wie ein Besucher von einem anderen Planeten, der ich wohl auch war und schon immer gewesen bin." I guess there are only very few language out there which could not do this sentence. In the opposite there are a lot of language which can express everything in a more detailed way. For example, Hungarian has e. g. 18 cases.

@SelfReflective

Жыл бұрын

@@lennat24 But German has "war" and "bin gewesen". So it's very similar to English. But Slavic languages do not, or have lost the "have + past tense" construction. Of course you can express the same sentiment, but not with the same grace and economy of language.

@lennat24

Жыл бұрын

​@@SelfReflective Thanks for your explanation. I have no clue about Slavic languages in generel.

@ARyan-yk9qh

Жыл бұрын

I would re-write the sentence to be: "I felt similar to a visitor from another planet, which I guess I was, and always will be."

Marvelous! Thanks for the explanation.

I really enjoyed your post. It is one of the best I've ever heard. I use these three rules for the Past Simple: 1. Action is finished 2. Time referred to, not necessarily specified or exact as many grammar books say. 3. Time is finished For example: Yesterday, I played football. I went to Greece on my vacation. Dinosaurs walked on the Earth 60 million years ago. I went to George Washington High School. I hope that is helpful. I am going to give your video to my students as a great example Thanks!

I really like your videos. Thank you for the great job you do. I really appreciate you.

Excelent, excelent video!!! A great lesson about Present Perfect and Simple Past tenses! Greetings from Argentina!!!

@LetThemTalkTV

2 жыл бұрын

Glad you liked it

It's funny because this is also a difference that is a bit confusing in Spanish. Usually speakers from Spain will use the opposite conjugation than in some Latin American countries. So in Spain, "I saw the incident" would be "yo he visto el incidente" but in Chile/Argentina it would be "yo vi el incidente".

@mep6302

Жыл бұрын

It's the same difference between British and American English.

Thanks very usefull vidéo Gideon.... If only we have learn that in school in France... than you very much.

Thank you, thank you, thank you for an extremely useful, deep lesson.!

Dear Gideon, thank you so much for your wonderful videos! Could you tell me why Jon used the Past Simple Tense with "once" being used as an adverb at the end of the sentence (there were two examples). Isn't it more correct to use the Present Perfect in those sentences with the meaning "one time". I do agree that if we switch the position of this adverb (e.g. after the first auxiliary) and imply that this action doesn't take place any longer, we can use the Past Simple tense. So is it more correct to use the Present Perfect (e.g. in the sentence with snails), or is it only the matter of a variant of word order which is flexible?

Thank you for your explication it's very helpful and very easier

Simply superb !

Thank you very much. Being a dutch speaker I find this very hard to grasp! All the examples of wrong uses sound perfectly normal to me... so, starting the de-programming as of now lol

Dear teacher, your videos are both a trove of knowledge and a delight to watch. 4:17 _I've always believed that democracy is the best form of Government. So, I believed it in the past and I still believe it. Unfortunately, the world is still full of dictators but I'm a mere English teacher and there's not much I can do about that._ 😅😅😅 Thanks a lot for your fine humour!

Thank you very much. It was very useful!

Best video on Present perfect and simple past...Ta, Gideon...

Great lesson, thank you guys!! I'll use these questions to ask and answer myself (it sounds sad now that I say it... but still, good practice!). "Where did the escar go?" 😆

Please never stop making such helpful videos 😭😭

Thank you so much!

As a native speaker of English from the United States, it is definitely very common for us to use the simple past tense in place of the present perfect tense in quite a few instances. For example, if I'm in a situation with friends where I've lost my keys, I would probably say, "Oh, no. I lost my keys. Can you help me find them?" I probably wouldn't say, "Oh, no. I've (I have) lost my keys. Can you help me find them?" Another example: I would say, "I bought a new car. Would you like to see it?" I probably wouldn't say, "I've (I have) bought a new car. Do you want to see it? To American ears "I have lost my keys" or "I have bought a new car" sounds a little formal and old-fashioned, almost like one is calling everyone over to make a formal proclamation.

@kittenastrophy5951

Жыл бұрын

Thanks for your input. From my learner point of view, English speaker doesn't use present simple as a base tense in daily life talking as we assume from what we're taught in basic English class. It's more of the past tense usage. My language needs no tense variation.

@gisellesuarez6893

Жыл бұрын

Dear JLKeener, I'd like to know your opinion about this textbook exercise: Sarah’s family didn’t go(not go)away on holiday this year. They stayed (stay)at home. Sara is happy because her new neighbors are (be) very interesting people. After she broke (break)the ice, she discovered that they had (have) lots of stories to tell her about their lives.. For me, the past simple is ok(Sarah's family didn't go). A friend from Portugal told me that it is "Sarah's family hasn't gone" because "this year" is a time period that continues and we don't use the past simple with time periods that continue...Thanks for your help :)

@TinLeadHammer

5 ай бұрын

"It" is not a native speaker. You have a dangling modifier there.

Instant like. I really like the 2 of you. I learn and you are so awesome I feel great watching

@LetThemTalkTV

2 жыл бұрын

You are awesome

It's quite exciting to have access to these rules, rich content, it was well explained as always 🎯... I wish I had a Gideon teacher at my school in the past.... The Q&A part is funny, getting to know a little bit about the peculiarity of each one...Gideon so glad you became an English teacher...🤠🇬🇧 Nice see you and Jon 🤩🤩

@LetThemTalkTV

2 жыл бұрын

I'm you're teacher now...Many thanks

@isabelatence7035

2 жыл бұрын

@@LetThemTalkTV Yes you are... I enjoy it a lot

@WoSarvatraHain

2 жыл бұрын

@@LetThemTalkTV So, is it "So glad you've become an English teacher" ?

@DeYiZhiMusilin

Жыл бұрын

@@WoSarvatraHain How else might it be expressed then?

Dear Sir, 8 months ago I watched the video when BBC journalist was interviewing Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko. The journalist speaks Russian even better than Lukashenko however, at some points I could hear that he is not native Russian speaker. For a student it is good to know how he learned the language.

👌👌👌👌👌🙏 Thank you very much, Sir. It's a great help for me.

These tenses have really got me struggling, i hope i'll be able to handle them better by the end of your video.

@LetThemTalkTV

2 жыл бұрын

yes you will

I've always had problems regarding this very topic. When I first watched this video earlier today, I decided to watch it again later on. Now that I have, it's time to practise im afraid.

As a Dutch speaker and teacher, I frequently have to explain the English rules to my students so that they can do their best to forget them :) The main difference is that Dutch, especially in its spoken form, has almost no rules at all. Often you can use both tenses interchangeably. You mentioned for example how important it is in English to use a past simple with a when question (when using a "past word"). In (spoken) Dutch you could use both without any particular difference, however, like in French, we would often use the present perfect. Yesterday, I went to Paris Gisteren ben ik naar Parijs gegaan (PP) Hier, je suis allé à Paris (PP) ("gisteren ging ik naar Parijs", PS, [ging = went], would also work but it is less common. No difference in meaning though...)

@startledmilk6670

2 жыл бұрын

I’ve been studying German for the past 2 years and this video actually helped me understand past tenses in German a bit more😂 but I never realized how similar German and Dutch sort of are until I read your comment

@mehdiwadoud8098

Жыл бұрын

Germanic languages are misusing the pefekt (latin) tense English is an exeption due to higher french/influence

@torrawel

Жыл бұрын

@@startledmilk6670 the thing is that you shouldn't try to understand it! :) For many Dutch speakers, like I tried to explain with the little example, there is no difference in meaning between : Ik ben naar Parijs gegaan (I've gone to Paris) Ik ging naar Parijs (I went to Paris) The first one (simple past) is used more in writing, more in story telling... I don't know if that's the same for German though...

@torrawel

Жыл бұрын

@@mehdiwadoud8098 I somehow doubt that. First of all, the Germanic languages obviously don't descend from Latin so they cannot "misuse" the Latin grammar. 2nd, of all Romance languages, French itself is the most Germanic in its structure. That's why I would say: "je suis allé hier", and not "j'allais" (imparfait) or, even worse, "j'allai" (passé simple) (There's actually a lot of old Dutch influence in French, like the double negation, the use of the personal pronouns, and yes, probably also the use of the perfectum.... Since the Franks originally came from what today is Belgium and the southern part of the Netherlands, all of this isn't that strange of course)

@startledmilk6670

Жыл бұрын

@@torrawel I could understand that just fine. In German it would be “Ich habe nach Paris gegangen.” Then “Ich ging nach Paris” German doesn’t use “to be” in the simple past very often, it’s saved for major changes of consciousness or being. There’s a written only past tense in German with different conjugation.

Hi Gideon, your videos are always amazing and very interesting and of course very useful. I like they way you explain the grammar. and since this lesson is about grammar, I have a grammar questions that made me confused. In this video your gust said (when talking about the job in wimbly ) .... in a way it probably worked out for the best because otherwise you could have been doing that job now...why he didn't say "otherwise you COULD BE DOING that job now" . Another question, when you gave an example of cleaned and have cleaned You said I cleaned the apartment last month before the guests came.... so because you used the word before, i feel the grammatically correct sentence would be "I had cleaned the apartment last month before the guests came". I would be grateful if you explain these pieces of grammar. Cheers

@krietor

Жыл бұрын

Native of the U. S. here. If I could remember the part of the video in which the job was mentioned, I would be more sure, but I think "COULD BE doing" would be correct if they were speaking about an alternate outcome dependent upon whether a specific condition existed. The following might work as well, though each is subtly different: "otherwise you MIGHT HAVE BEEN doing" or "otherwise you WOULD BE doing". To your second question I can be sure I know the answer. The word "before" is being used in a different way here. If "before" meant "in my past" then your suggestion would be right - "I have cleaned the apartment before." However, here "before" means "earlier than" relative to when the guests arrived. In this case you would say, "I cleaned it before they came."

Thank you ..

This explanation is awesome))

Perfect!! I love it!

I was a good lesson! I have understood very well 🤗

Good job!

Enlightening as always! Might I suggest that you explain the use of the word "haven't" when it's used for possession? For example, 'I haven't any brothers'. I know it is a trifle old-fashioned, but it would be interesting to hear some explanation :) You could also mention 'know not', 'care not', 'needn't', etc. Thank you in advance, teacher!

@LetThemTalkTV

2 жыл бұрын

Your question about Have not/haven't will be answered in the next video.

@khinkaliloverbabe

2 жыл бұрын

@@LetThemTalkTV I am obliged to you more than I can express. Looking forward to it. Have a good day :)

@ThePositiev3x

2 жыл бұрын

Is this even a legit sentence?

@arogueburrito

Жыл бұрын

@@ThePositiev3x yes, I'm from the US so it sounds absurd but I've heard it

Hi, can you teach us how to understand and appreciated British humour? Thank you 🙏🏼

Could you please make a episode on Training Needs Analysis?

Gideon, elated to see you again.

@freddiemercury8700

2 жыл бұрын

I know the pipeline is still too long for that present we use to talk about the past! I can't hold my breath any longer! Now, you couldn't tell us the difference between the * over the weekend * and * at the weekend * could you by any chance ? If you did, I promise you I will be a fan and friend for a lifetime..

@LetThemTalkTV

2 жыл бұрын

Ok, fair enough. I think they are extremely similar "at the weekend" is a bit more British. I'd say Let's meet "at the weekend". I think over the weekend has more the idea of a start and end time. "I painted my apartment over the weekend"

Like the man said, always a pleasure. 😊

Thank you for your lesson! Very helpful. I have a little question. Can I say "I've read this book for two weeks" instead of "I've been reading this book for two weeks", or will the first one mean completion of the book even with "for + a period of time"?

@cristinap.morais6878

2 жыл бұрын

It doesn't mean a finished action in the first sentence, but it sounds really odd. I think it's much better to use a present perfect cont. with active verbs, and especially verbs showing an action in progress. You started reading a book 2 weeks ago, and you are STILL reading it, it's a progressive process. At least, that's what I think 😉 and how I've seen it in books after these 18 years teaching English🍀

@arogueburrito

Жыл бұрын

it sounds pretty passable to me, but I live in the States so that's a different English in some respects. I may say "I've watched this show for the past month" and if I had a chance to speak more clearly I would say "I've been watching". Your example sounds okay, but not really proper.

All bright-eyed and bushy-tailed - that's been me since I came across LTTTV channel. Oh boy, was this lesson helpful!

What about the "I baked a cake yesterday". It is shown as an error and then as the correct phrase (around 5:45)

I love your videos!😆

# Good afternoon professor! I would to call you professor for you are experienced and deserve the title! I have a concern that has nothing to do with this lesson but please enable me to present it to you! My question is to know the difference between BACK TO and BACK IN ??

Hi Gideon, I just wanted to tell you something curious. I am argentinian and I live in Israel in a Macabean city and the street where I live is called Maaleh Gideon. I've been following you for a very short time and I don't know if you talked about the Biblical/Hebrew origin of your name. Shalom ! Armando.

Although I passed " English Language " at O level [ in the 1950's when grammar was still considered as important ] I have never heard of the past simple. I've also studied French ( I'm designated " bilingual " by the Canadian Public service, and German ( O level ). As a result I understand the difference between imperfect, perfect, pluperfect, subjunctive, present, near future and future and conditional. It might help if in your video you explained at least some of these at the outset, because, very frankly I found it hard to relate the logic in each or your examples.

@palfers1

Жыл бұрын

That's because he's wrong. There is no "present perfect".

@Bjowolf2

Жыл бұрын

@@palfers1 Yes, there is - even I know that as non-native speaker of English. Or maybe you refer to "I have (!) made my point" differently with respect to its grammatical tense? 😉

can you make a video on punctuation?

What does the "NP" represent on the tee shirt I just bought?

We are recording it in Paris and so I thought I'd ask you this'. Why not 'I've thought I ask you this' on 14:13?

I have been learning english since last september.

With the adverb “recently”, which one should I use? I’ve recently done it or I recently did it?

@ARyan-yk9qh

Жыл бұрын

"I recently did it" sounds better and more appropriate to my ears. I find that deleting the phrase "I have" makes phrases, whether written or spoken, sound more precise.

@AFBLYS

Жыл бұрын

@@ARyan-yk9qh thank you 🙏 Greetings from Dubai…

So interesting, in the US we would more often say, “I baked you a cake” or “I cut my finger”, though the I’ve would also be correct.

Very great lesson 👍. Thank you so much Teacher!

Sorry, can you say books of Shakespeare? I thought you should say by Shakespeare

@loiswells3062

Жыл бұрын

Shakespeare never wrote any books: he wrote plays & poems. So you should say "Books of Shakespeare's plays or works."

That is interesting - I don't think I have ever seen or heard someone say swum before. I looked it up and it is a real word. However, I am almost positive that in America one would say "I have never swam in the see before". I wonder if I am saying this wrong, or if this is something like vosotros, that is used in Britain but not America.

@janopa9719

Жыл бұрын

This is my experience as well, I've never heard swum in America

👏👏👏

Did you use to work for BBC Learning English ?

Why has he said 'I thought they tasted interesting' in a past simple tense on 14:31? Wouldn't it be more correct to say it in present perfect tense?

It was so difficult for me to get a handle on past perfect tense as it is not used in my language

Maybe you could explain IF vs WHETHER ... Even native speakers often get it wrong.

I have used the word swum zero times, until today. Maybe in 3nglish class, but wouldn’t swam be preferred.

Swum. As an American speaker, swam is the more common pp. I use both, having had a Canadian mother mum.

@helenschwickrath3412

Жыл бұрын

Or, I swimmed....

Could you please explain me why did you use run not ran .rest every where you said like climbed ,fired...

The exclamation "We did it!" It feels like Present perfect should be used, because there's no time indication, and there's obvious result.

@mep6302

Жыл бұрын

You can say both in this situation. We've done it! (You focus on the result) We did it! (You focus on the finished action)

1. Question: This is how I decide 'whether time is important or whether action is important' rather than thinking about areas of use. Does this make sense? Otherwise, I can not speak at all. Thanks! 2. Question: when a round is over in the game we are talking about that round. If we don't emphasize 'time' at all, then would it be more correct to use 'Present perfect Tense'? For example: Bro, I've seen you behind the door why haven't you given info us? It hasn't been proper behavior at all. Bro, I saw you behind the door why didn't you give info us? It wasn't proper behavior at all.

You were right it's quite easy

@LetThemTalkTV

2 жыл бұрын

indeed

Sir, good evening ' he has been a teacher' means he was a teacher? Or he is a teacher till now?

"Perhaps the most famous person I have ever met IS President Jimmy Carter". I would have used WAS there. Am I wrong? Does it have to do with Carter still alive? Please explain.

👍👍

Past simple - specific time in past Present perfect - unspecified time before present

So which British dialect is it that commonly uses the present perfect, where the past simple would be called for? We hear this in a lot of traditional folk songs, e.g. "He's *taken* his sword and..." instead of "He *took* his sword and..."? Catherine Tate's "Sam" character in the "Paul and Sam" sketches also speaks this way. As here: kzread.info/dash/bejne/X41_1NKze6iyerg.html "You know what *I've* done... *I've* suddenly realised"... rather than "You know what I *did*.. I suddenly realized" -- what sort of regional accent is she doing? By the way I had to turn on the subtitles to understand the word "Peugeot". Had no idea what he was saying.

What is tense

I find it confusing sometimes that past events are narrated in the written form in the present tense, for example recent news or plots from a play or film, or when people from a long time ago said something.

@mep6302

Жыл бұрын

It's also common in Spanish (at least in my variaty. I'm from Argentina) I sometimes use the present tense to tell something that's happened to me. But I prefer to use the past simple most of the time.

👍👍👍

10:35 I'd expect "I've done a half-marathon once" here. Why Past Simple, when it's about experience without linking it to a particular time? 11:11 "I've been fired from two different jobs" would be more appropriate, wouldn't it? 14:18 the same...

@mep6302

Жыл бұрын

The difference is when using past simple you're only focusing on that event and when using the present perfect you're focusing on the possibility of repetition or you think it's relevant to the present. There's a slightly difference in meaning in all of these cases you mentioned

What I most commonly hear is “I seen it”.

12:02 "I've studied it, so I have read it, but perhaps not in my spare time." There's a time expression but he still uses present perfect. What's up with that? Maybe he didn't know he will say a time expression?

You saved me

I done seen it

I have been to Paris in the past year.

@LetThemTalkTV

2 жыл бұрын

Good point. I perhaps should have mentioned that. "in the past year" is unfinished time. It includes the past and up to now so you'd use the present perfect.

@jonadams8841

2 жыл бұрын

@@LetThemTalkTV f*ck wow. I thot I was just peculiar… thx!

@jonadams8841

2 жыл бұрын

@@LetThemTalkTV thank u for responding!

Perry Farrell is lookin' good.

Only in the Uk have you swum in sea. I have ever swum in the sea, but i had swam in the sea.

Gideon reminds of Grahf from xenogears

Yes I have met a famous person.. He WAS or IS Jimmy Carter? Don't we keep the same sense? And use "WAS"? Please clarify. Thank you.

at about 7:50 - * but WE Brits (not us) use the present perfect tense , lol

Have any of you had been in Argentina? Sorry, May I make a question??

@mep6302

Жыл бұрын

"Have had been" doesn't make sense in English. The correct question is: Have any of you been to Argentina? Sorry, may I ask a question?