Which tense does the time word want?
Read out your three I’ve sentences. As a class, look at what comes after each one — the time expression is doing the deciding.
Eight time expressions. Match each to the tense it forces.
Four people, four kinds of change
Four short answers to "what has changed for you?"
Ola: I have not lived in the same city as my parents since I was nineteen, and for a long time I told myself that was temporary. I stopped saying that about two years ago.
Malik: I qualified in 2014 and I have worked in the same hospital ever since. People assume that means I have not changed. I have changed completely; the building has just stayed the same.
Ines: I have started three businesses and closed two of them. The first one failed in 2019 and I have not been the same about money since.
Teo: Nothing dramatic has happened to me. I have got older, I have got calmer, and I have stopped needing people to agree with me. That last one has taken about a decade.
Six statements. Decide which speaker each one is true of. A speaker can be the answer more than once.
A Ola
B Malik
C Ines
D Teo
1. Describes a change that has taken roughly ten years.
2. Names a specific finished year, and a consequence that is still going on.
3. Corrects an assumption other people make about them.
4. Describes stopping a habit of thought rather than an action.
5. Says something has stayed the same while they have not.
6. Lists changes without claiming any of them is significant.
Say these out loud. have and has almost never get their own stress in a positive sentence.
I’ve /aɪv/ · you’ve /juːv/ · we’ve /wiːv/ · they’ve /ðeɪv/ · he’s /hiːz/ · it’s /ɪts/
Uncontracted, they weaken: Have you ever… is /həv ju ˈevə/, not /hæv juː ˈevə/. And I have pronounced fully, with stress, means something extra — it is how you contradict somebody: You have not changed. — I HAVE changed.
The shape of a reflective answer
All four speakers do the same three things in the same order: state the change in the perfect, anchor it with for, since or a year, then say what it means now.
The anchor is what stops a reflection floating. Without it, I have changed a lot is a sentence nobody can do anything with.
Four sentences have been taken out of this paragraph. Put each one back in the right gap.
People ask what has changed since I left teaching, and for a long time I did not have an answer. [1] I qualified in 2011 and I lasted nine years, which is longer than most.
What I say now is that I have stopped measuring days in lessons. [2] It sounds small. It took about three years and it changed everything about how I plan a week.
I have not missed the marking, obviously. [3] Two of them still text me on results day and I have never once managed to reply calmly.
And I have become much worse at small talk. [4] That one I did not expect, and I am still not sure whether it is a loss.
For, since, and the anchor
The two anchors
| Word | Takes | Examples |
|---|---|---|
for | A length of time | for three years · for a long time · for ten minutes · for ages |
since | A point when it started | since 2019 · since March · since I was nineteen · since we met |
| Both | Need the present perfect when the thing is still true | I have worked here for / since… |
| Neither | With a finished period, use the past simple | I worked there for two years — and I do not now |
One to three words per gap. Some gaps want a verb form, some want for or since.
I in the same job eleven years, which surprises people. I the same about it the department was reorganised — that was in 2022 and something changed for me then. My colleague here six months and she has already noticed it.
Eight time phrases. Match each to the word it takes.
The interview
Task card · Speaking · Pairs · 5 minutes each
You are interviewing your partner for a programme like On Being. You have five minutes and you are genuinely curious.
Six questions, six answers, and every answer anchored.
- Two questions must begin Have you ever…
- Two must begin How long have you…
- Two must begin What has changed since…
- Every answer contains for, since, or a number of times.
- If your partner gives you a bare date, ask one follow-up until the period reaches now.
The follow-up is the point. When somebody says I moved here in 2021, the question is and how long have you been here? — the same fact, in the tense that makes it about now.
From the interviews
Five sentences from the interviews. Fix each.
1. How long you are living here?
2. I am here since October.
3. What has changed since two years?
4. Have you ever go to Ireland?
5. I know her since the university.
Two anchors
Two questions.
1. Which is right?
2. So far this year takes which tense?
Before next lesson. Write six sentences about your own life: three with for, three with since. All six in the present perfect.
Next lesson we build the form properly, including the irregular participles, which are the only part of this you have to memorise.