Words for change
Think of three ways you are different from the person you were five years ago. One about work or study, one about people, one about yourself.
Hold them. First, the language.
Eight expressions people use about their own lives. Match each to what it actually says.
Two answers to the same question
Bruno · asked how he has changed in five years
I moved to Lisbon in 2021. I started a new job. I learned to drive. I stopped smoking last March.
I think I am more patient. I do not know. That is all really.
Amara · same question, same length of answer
I have lived in three countries since 2020, which I would not have predicted. I have learned to be alone, which is not the same as being lonely — that took me two of those three countries to work out.
I have stopped apologising for things that are not my fault. That one is recent and I am still not good at it.
And I have never once regretted leaving, although I have missed people badly, which is different.
Five questions comparing the two answers. Both speakers are describing five years. Only one of them sounds like it.
1. Bruno lists four events, each with a date or a finished time. What tense does that force?
2. Amara says I have lived in three countries since 2020. Is she still living abroad?
3. Why can Amara not say I have lived in three countries in 2020?
4. Bruno’s answer is grammatically correct throughout. Why does it not answer the question well?
5. I have never once regretted leaving. Which period does never cover?
What the tense is made of
Present perfect: have / has + past participle
| Positive | Negative | Question | |
|---|---|---|---|
| I / you / we / they | I have lived here. · I’ve lived here. | I haven’t lived here. | Have you lived here? |
| he / she / it | She has lived here. · She’s lived here. | She hasn’t lived here. | Has she lived here? |
| Regular participle | work → worked · live → lived · stop → stopped | ||
| Irregular participle | be → been · go → gone/been · see → seen · do → done · take → taken | ||
been or gone | She’s been to Paris — and come back | She’s gone to Paris — she is still there |
Six lines of an answer, out of order. Put them into the order that builds from a fact to a reflection.
- That took me two of those three countries to work out.
- I have lived in three countries since 2020.
- I have missed people badly, though, which is a different thing.
- I have learned to be alone, which is not the same as being lonely.
- I have never regretted leaving.
- The first move was for a job, and the second was not.
Building the form
One to three words per gap. Watch the person, and watch which participles are irregular.
I in this flat since March. My sister here twice and she the neighbours yet. We a lot of noise about the building work, but nothing about it. My brother to Porto for the week — he gets back on Sunday.
Six sentences from real answers to this question. One error each.
1. I live here since 2019.
2. She has went to Brazil three times.
3. I have finish the course last year.
4. He have changed a lot.
5. I never went to Japan.
6. We are married for eleven years.
Two minutes on five years
Task card · Speaking · Diagnostic · 2 minutes each
Your partner asks: how have you changed in the last five years? They will not accept a list of events.
Two minutes. Three changes — work or study, people, yourself — with at least one thing that has not changed.
- For each change, say roughly how long it has been going on.
- At least one change should still be unfinished: I am still…
- Include one thing you have never done and one thing you have done more than once.
- Do not give a date for anything unless the thing is genuinely over.
Listener’s job. Two columns. In the left, every sentence with have or has in it. In the right, every sentence about the last five years that had neither.
Then ask two questions, both beginning Have you ever… The right-hand column is the diagnosis.
What two minutes produced
Five sentences of the kind this task always produces. Fix each.
1. I work in this company since four years.
2. I didn’t travel much in my life.
3. Have you ever went to Scotland?
4. My English is better since I started this course.
5. I am living here for two years.
One question to carry
Three questions.
1. Which is right?
2. She has gone to Paris. Where is she?
3. Why is I have finished the course last year wrong?
Before next lesson. Listen to one episode of On Being or Modern Love. Write down three sentences the speaker says about their own life that begin with I have or I’ve.
Three exactly. You will find them in the first ten minutes — this is the tense reflective speech is built out of.