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Reviewing the Future Perfect

. We’re halfway through November. The autumn leaves have fallen, and winter is fast approaching. The year 2015 is almost over, and we just have a month or so before the new year begins. Do you have anything that you want to accomplish by the end of the year? Are you working on a task… Read more »

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Present Perfect vs. Past perfect

If you haven’t checked out our lessons on the present perfect or the present perfect progressive, as well as the past perfect or the past perfect progressive, go there first to BRUSH UP (review) on these tenses. For this lesson, we’re going to CONTRAST (show the differences between) the present and past perfect tenses to clarify them even… Read more »

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Present perfect progressive

Like the present perfect, the present perfect progressive connects the past with the present. However, the progressive tense focuses more on the action or activity of the main verb, while the present perfect presents the sentence more as a fact. In addition, the present perfect progressive is almost always used with for (to convey duration),… Read more »

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the present perfect

    The present perfect has a couple of uses, and if you understand the ways it is used, remember them, and practice, you’re on your way to mastering this tense. First, you should know the structure. The present perfect uses “have” or “has” as an auxiliary verb and the past participle as a main… Read more »

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the past perfect progressive

First, be sure to review our small lesson on the past perfect. Once you understand how to use the past perfect, the past perfect progressive shouldn’t be too difficult. Like the past perfect, the past perfect progressive occurs before the past tense. The progressive or “ing” form means that we’re focusing on an activity that was… Read more »

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New Survey: next lesson on verb tenses

We had a nice TURNOUT (number of visitors) for my last lesson on the past perfect tense, so I thought of preparing another small lesson on verb tenses. For my students, the future perfect and the future perfect progressive tenses can also be challenging, so I’m considering doing one of these next.  What about you?… Read more »

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the past perfect tense

The past perfect can be challenging for some English learners. It can be tough to figure out exactly when or how to use it. But it’s really not very difficult. Basically, the past perfect tense occurs before the past tense and is usually used when you tell a story that happened in the past. When… Read more »