Essential English Grammar Overview

Hey guys, welcome to a very, very, very important class. Today, we're going to talk about grammar. I know it is your favorite topic, and this is why we're going to start with prepositions. Then we're going to talk about some basic grammar rules. and of course we're going to talk about articles. Is it a or is it the? We're going to talk about that and we're going to wrap up this class by talking about tenses in English. So if you're learning English, this class is for you. Let's start. When I first arrived in the US, I was super confused about some prepositions. Like am I at the farmer's market or in the farmer's market? My billboard was on Times Square or in Times Square. I am at the hotel or I'm in the hotel. These prepositions are very confusing, but first of all, whichever preposition you decide to use, native speakers are going to understand you. No one's going to tell you, no, no, no, this is a wrong preposition. Like if you're talking to native speakers, normally no one would tell you that something is wrong. But if you're taking a test, yes, this is where problems might start, because this is where you will get lower points if you make mistakes. So let's start. with prepositions in English. Okay, let's start with at versus in. The rule that you have to remember in is used with major big things like countries, cities, continents. I was born in Europe. Well, Saint Petersburg is kind of Eastern Europe. I consider it Europe. He was born in Italy. He was born in Rome. I was born in Liverpool in a railroad switch house. We use at with smaller, insignificant kind of places. So I'm at the farmer's market. Because farmer's market is relatively small. Same with buildings. I'm at the airport. I'm gonna meet you at the restaurant. With small insignificant things we're using at. I work at the University Stadium. I'm a security guard. The next set of rules is regarding all versus all of. So we use all of when we have pronouns. Pronouns are us, they, them, me, you. Those are all pronouns. So we say all versus all. All of us are going to Malibu next week. All of them have completed their TOEFL test. So whenever it's a pronoun, we have all of. All of me. However, in all other cases, we have all. All the people are forced to stay at home. All the students have to wear masks. All the children need to stay at home. All the gods, all the heavens. By the way, guys, if you're looking for a manual. or like a book for grammar. My team and I have created a grammar book with all the necessary rules that you need. We have prepositions, we have tenses, we have conditionals. Oh my God, I hate conditionals. What would have happened if he had come five minutes earlier? Like all. of those clauses and consequences. All of that is explained in a very simple manner. It's a very, very visual grammar book that you can use every single day when you are doing something in English, when you have this question, oh my god, what do I use here? Our grammar book would be there to help you. Moreover, if you want more practice, we have a special practice exercise book created specifically for this grammar book. So you can read the topic on a specific grammar rule. and then practice that grammar rule. It's a very affordable manual created by me and my team. It's brand new, it's fresh, no old-fashioned words, no old-fashioned rules. I use it all the time with my students when I'm creating different classes. The link will be below. Please make sure to download it, print it out, or you can use a PDF on your computer or your iPad. I, by the way, love using iPad Pro where you can write things. inside the PDF with a pen. But it's up to you, whatever you have at home, or just print it out, and have it on your desk at all times, because this is something you can consult when you have any questions regarding grammar. Again, the link will be below. Thank you so much for downloading it, and it would really help you go through my videos as well. The next section, in versus on versus at, when we're talking about time. So when we talk about general measurements, like I'll be there in two minutes, I'll see you in two days, we're gonna travel abroad in two months. So this in is used with general measurements. I'll be there in two days. there in 20 minutes however when we have a specific date and time we use on and at I will see you on Monday at 12 p.m. the classes start on September 21st I'll go now if I may we'll see you on Friday and remember that in is also used with a year. I was born in 1990. He will come back in 2025. That was in 1994. Beside versus besides. So beside is a preposition that... means nearby. We were camping beside the river. We were camping on the shore, right? We're really close to the river and we're camping there. Besides, as an adverb and preposition, that means in addition to. Besides, we need your support in this venture. So this is something you would start your sentence with. Besides two suitcases, I'm taking three boxes with me. So it means in addition to my boxes, I'm taking my suitcases. You mean beside my marriage? Among versus between. Among is used when you have a group of objects or people, usually three or more. She's very popular among her classmates. She's a very popular girl, right? I can choose among all your t-shirts. You have like 30 in your closet. Oh my god. Among our homes. Between is when you have two objects. I can decide between going to the cinema and staying at home. Between us. On versus upon. They're actually interchangeable. You can use both. But upon. Upon is really formal and unfashioned. Remember this? Once upon a time, there was this little girl who lived in the forest, blah, blah, blah. All the fairy tales will start like that. Put your book on a table. We usually just use on in this context. To versus than. There are several words that can only be followed by to. And these words are senior, junior, prefer, prior, superior, inferior, preferable. He is senior. Senior to me in service, right? We're using to. I prefer coffee to tea. I like coffee more. He is superior to me in terms of grades, which means he's higher than me. Is Matthew superior to me? So with these, we use to. In other cases, we use than. He's better than me. She's more beautiful than me, etc. You're no better than he is. In versus into. We use in when we have a person, an animal, or an object located in a location. I was sitting in the classroom. He was in the house when the policeman came. Here he is in your office. We use into. in a sense of coming toward something. He came into my office. So he was kind of entering a closed space and he was moving toward me. So he came into my office. We're driving into garage. So this is this movement inside. Then we use into. Came into the store. For versus since. For measures a period. Since marks the start date. I've been vlogging for 5 years already. I've been vlogging since 2014. It's actually 6. I've been following... Lingua Marina? Wow, this is a great example for you to practice. Write this down below. Two sentences. I've been following Lingua Marina for two years. I've been following Lingua Marina since 2018 when I first saw her video about TOEFL. By the way, guys, let me know when did you first start watching me and why? What was that video that grabbed your attention and made you subscribe and made you follow me? This would be really useful for my future videos because I would make sure I produce more content. that attracts people's attention. Please comment down below and thank you so much for doing that and thank you so much for practicing your English down in comments below. Agree with versus agree to. Agree with is used for agreement with a person. I agree with you. We need to practice English daily. I agree with our president that we need to support our economy. I agree with Dinesh. Agree to is used for agreement to a plan. proposal or idea. I agree to your proposal. Let's start a company together. I agree to your idea to share this video with all of my friends. You'll agree to anything. Now let's talk about two versus four. The first thing that we're gonna do, we're gonna talk about when we use to. The first case when we use to is when we're talking about a destination. I am going to Germany. To Germany. the end of April. I'm going to Munich by the way. Or there is another example. We are going to a restaurant tonight. To a restaurant. This is a direction. I'm not gonna back out of that. I want to go to Spain. Second case. If we're talking about time and if we're talking in British English, what they love to say it's a Quarter to two, which means 1.45. Like Americans, well, I've never heard Americans saying quarter to two or twenty to two. And when I first heard it in Great Britain, I was a little confused, but they say that a lot. It's quarter to two. Americans would say it's 1.45, because quarter is 15 minutes. And there is a second case of using to with time. For example, the restaurant is open from Monday to Friday. So we can kind of replace to with until, and this is an another way to use it. So, for example, the restaurant is open until 5 p.m. or the restaurant is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. And this is when we use to. But I do Monday, Wednesday, Friday from 7 to 9. When we compare something, I prefer traveling to sitting at home. I prefer sleeping to working. I prefer watching Marina's videos to studying by myself. I prefer metaphysics to theology. The next type of use is when we're talking about a receiver of an action. I gave my book to my follower. I sent a letter to my friend. I wrote an email to my colleague. And last but not the least when you want to express a reason for your action. For example, I came here to see you. I did it to make more money. I've started learning English to get a job promotion. So we're explaining why we've started doing something and this is when we use TO. I came to see you. Now let's move on to talking about for. You see what I've just used? Let's move on to talking because what it is, this is our direction. We're moving to the next section of our class. We're talking about for now. When we talk about benefits, we use for. So for example, you're doing something for your health or for the benefit of your parent. I bought a gift for my friend. I stopped eating gluten for the benefit of my health. Why you didn't get for my health? 4 also indicates periods of times. I've been living in the US for 4 years. I've been learning English for several months now. I've been watching Lingua Marina channel for over 2 years and I love her content. She's amazing. She's the best influencer out there. Oh, you are being modest. Also, when we talk about schedule, we use for. I made an appointment with my doctor for March 13th. March 13th is my birthday. I'd rather reschedule it for March 14th. Your flight is scheduled for May 31st. Again, we're talking about schedule. A hearing is scheduled for today. We also use for to express a reason. He was fired from job For being constantly late. He has been late so many times and he's been fired for that. Or she's been promoted for her good English because her English reached a certain level and she qualified for a promotion. And we also use for to express a purpose of something. Marina creates videos for improving your English. You watch my videos. for improving your language. Travel a lot for work. There are also cases when TO and FOR can be both used. Let's talk about some examples so I can illustrate this better. Let's compare two examples. He's studying English for work. He is studying English to be able to talk to his American friends. So what we notice here is that we use FOR with a noun. He learns English for fun. He learns English for work. He learns English for his master's degree. But when we have a verb, we say too. He learns English to talk to his friends in the US. He learns English to get a job promotion. He learns English to study abroad. See the difference? Now let's move on to another example when both to and for can be used. My friend brought lunch to me. My friend brought lunch for me. Now both are correct, but they have slightly different meanings. My friend brought lunch to me, we're talking about direction. He brought lunch to my apartment, put it on my table and I started eating. But when we say my friend bought lunch for me, we really want to emphasize that he's doing something nice for me. He thought about me when he was getting lunch so he got one for me. Apologize can be used with both to and for because you apologize for something, for something that you've done. I apologize for for breaking your cup. I apologize for this video being too short. But you apologize to someone. I apologize to you for this video being too short. I apologize to my friend for forgetting about her birthday. I apologize for the language. Apologize to you. Travel to and travel for. I traveled to Russia I travel to Paris, I travel to Germany, but I travel for work, I travel to Russia for LinguaFest, which is a festival by my company, I travel to Germany for Four meetings. You see, so four is for the reason, two is for the destination. Yes, you must travel to France immediately and put that directly into the hands of the king and him alone. Men can travel for work. Families unite. Wait, four or... or wait to. Wait for someone or something. I'm waiting for the concert tonight. I am waiting for my dad to come and visit us in California. But you wait to do something. I cannot wait to see my family in Russia. Or I cannot wait to travel this summer. What's your plan? Cannot wait to show you this. When we use ask, we normally use for. Ask for something. Can I ask you for a cup of tea, please? Can I ask you for a favor? Don't ask for permission, ask for forgiveness. When we talk about belonging, we normally say to. It belongs to me, it belongs to you, and never belong for, so don't say that. She belong to me. When we say care, we care for somebody. I care for my dog, I care for Alex, I care for my family. You care for him. And the last but not the least, when we're saying prepare, we always say prepare for something. I will need to prepare for the festival. Prepare for battle! Let's do a quick quiz. He lives 13 Long Street, and you have to select either in, on, or at. I'm visiting my grandma on, in, at a hospital. I like traveling to, in, at a train. Now you're gonna get the right answers at the end of this video, but make sure you write your answers down so you can check yourself later. Now let's talk about some rules. The first rule is when we use at. At is used with a very exact place. Think small building. Like something that is small, you would always use at. At the door. At the hospital. At school. At the university. At the table. At the door. So something specific would always be at. But when you're thinking about big things like, I don't know, Panama or Guatemala or Saint Petersburg or London, you would never say at. Because at only applies to smaller things. And London, Panama, Guatemala, those huge geographical locations. So you can't be at London. You're in London. In London, yeah. But I'm at the desk. I'm at home. I'm at my studio. I am at the bus stop, etc. At this university. At the door. At school. We use on with streets and avenues. I live on Park Avenue. On North Avenue. I live on Green Street. So on is always with a street. But please remember there are always exceptions. Like if you're talking about university and you're talking about campus. You say I live on campus. On campus. Campus is this location where you have your dorms, you have your classes, you have your restaurants, cafeterias, etc. So on campus would be an exception, but normally on is only used with streets. Now when we're talking about the street, there is another thing to remember. When we have a number, then we use at. I live at 13 Green Street. At 45 Dunstan Street. But when we don't have a number, like I'm asking you, where are you right now? and you're answering i'm on market street you don't give me a number and then use on on green street so at is used when we give the full address street number etc on is when we just mention the street and when we talk about something bigger than the street we use the preposition in so for example you have different parts of town we are having lunch in chinatown or we are having lunch in knob hill this is like a district here in san francisco with cities as i already mentioned i live in london i live in london i live in new york i live in new york we have been in new york for two weeks we are in los altos hills with states i live in california live in california with parts of countries my friends spent vacation in the south of india with countries i used to live in russia With continents, my sister is in Africa. I love being in Africa. So to sum things up, we use at with specific locations, on with less specific locations like streets, and in with bigger locations like cities, towns, countries, parts of countries. If you're already feeling overwhelmed with what's going on and we haven't yet started the most interesting part of the video where I'm going to explain... More things about prepositions. I would highly recommend a book called Grammar is All You Need. It is produced by my company called LinguaTrip by Certified Teachers. This is a handbook that covers all the necessary topics in English grammar, and it has a chapter on prepositions, it has a chapter on tenses, a chapter on grammar rules, and it's not just rules. We all get bored by those boring textbooks. In this book, just like in all of my videos, we tried to come up with different life hacks so you could understand everything better. And also, it's not just you reading the material. We have included a lot of exercises so you could practice things. Because with grammar, it's like if you just watch this video and you switch it off and you don't practice, it just goes away. Like, well, there's something in the back of your mind, but it really goes away. And because you're watching this video, first of all, you're getting 66% off this workbook. And second... you get a free chapter on prepositions because i really want you to remember these prepositions that we learned so if you follow the link below you're going to be able to receive a free chapter and 66 off the grammar is all you need workbook this workbook has 16 chapters on the most important topics of the english grammar done by my company done by lingua trip with love with passion for you guys with passion for english Again, the link is in description below. 66% off and free chapter on English prepositions. Something that we cover in this video so you could practice, so you can print it out, put it on your desk and never ever forget what's the right way to use prepositions in English. The link is below. Now let's move a little further with our prepositions. I gave you some basic rules, but now we're gonna explore more examples. In is also used when we are talking about an enclosed space. Something that has a roof, something that has walls, in a car, in a box, in a building. I am waiting for you in my car. They're in a car. Can you please help me find a pen in this box? In a box. Don't put your wallet in a pocket. Now listen carefully right now. We're moving to on and we use on with a bus, on a bus. And you might ask Marina, but why in a car but on a bus? Wait a minute, I'm gonna explain. The other... Words that we use on with are words that represent surface. Like this table is a surface. On a table. Your floor is a surface. On the floor. Wall behind me is also surface. On the wall. We also use on when we talk about left and right. On the left. On the right. Or vice versa. Depending on whatever you see. I think it's on the left for you, on the right for you. Next to or along the side of a river, for example. Cambridge is on the river Cam. Now, interesting part. Why in a car but on a bus? In is used with means of transportation where you can't stand up. Oh my God, English, you're so complicated. So you can't stand up in a car. So you say in a car. You can't stand up in a helicopter. But you can't stand up on an airplane. So on an airplane, in a helicopter, on a bus, in a car, on the bus, in a car, in a taxi, because you can't stand up in a taxi. I know guys, this is why I recommend having something like a grammar book so you can refer to things or at least have a script of this video in front of your eyes. On a ship, on a boat, on a plane, on a train, we use on with a means of transport where we can stand up. We can stand up on a plane, we can stand up on a bus, we can stand up on a boat. And also maybe another hint, we use on with a means of transportation where there is no roof. On a horse, on a boat, boat doesn't have a roof normally. You can have both but on a boat so normally you don't have a roof on top of you when you're on the upper deck. On a bike. You can't really stand up on a bike but it doesn't have a roof so it's on a bike. On your bike. On a boat. Another Another thing that can be super, super, super confusing for you guys. Sometimes you hear in a hospital and sometimes you hear at a hospital. Both of those are grammatically correct, but guess what? They have a different meaning. So when you're saying I'm in a hospital, that means you're a patient. You're actually receiving treatment. I don't remember the accident. I just remember waking up in a hospital. My uncle is in the hospital right now receiving treatment for his, I don't know, acne. I don't know if you go to the hospital for that, but he broke a leg. He's in a hospital. Let's do that. I'm giving birth in a hospital. But you can also say I'm at the hospital, but that would mean that you're just doing something there, that you're not a patient. I am visiting my uncle at the hospital because you're at the hospital, not as a patient receiving treatment. You're a guest. ...visiting your uncle. In college, my brother volunteered at a local hospital. Again, he wasn't a patient. This is why we use at the hospital. The same goes for school, museum, library... or any other institution. And we also use at with events. I'm at this Lady Gaga concert. Okay guys, I hope it wasn't super confusing for you. Again, if you want to make sure you remember all the prepositions, make sure to follow the link below and download the free chapter of the grammar book. And if you feel like you're willing to invest in your education, just a little sum of money using 66% off the grammar book will be even cheaper for you because you're watching this video. And now let's check your test. I guess you already know everything, but let's do it anyways. He lives at 13 Long Street because we give the full address. We give the number and the street address. I'm visiting my grandma at the hospital. Why? Because I'm not a patient. She's a patient. My grandma is in the hospital receiving treatment, and I'm visiting her at the hospital because I am not a patient. I like traveling on a train. You can also say I love traveling by train, but this is another topic for another video. Here, because we remember that we can stand up on the train, we use on. I like to travel on a train. This class is going to be about basic grammar, something that you should have learned while back at school. You might have forgotten basic grammar, but this is why I am here, because we're going to talk about really important things. Parts of speech, noun, pronoun, verb, what does that mean? Basic tenses that you have to know. And third is word order. And if you watch this video up to the very end, if you understand the concepts, if you learn them, there is 99% chance that you would be able to speak English at a level where you can explain what you need, explain what you're doing for life, or even work with people. Because what we're going to talk about creates foundation for your language. So please... Make sure you listen carefully. Let's do it! First of all, let's talk about parts of speech. We have nouns. These are our objects or subjects. Cat, dog, mom. Table. These are all nouns. Pronouns. These are words that substitute a noun to avoid repetition. Cat. He. Dog. Let's say she. Mom. She. table it then if we have plural they we etc verb we use verbs to express actions go read eat adjective. Now here listen carefully adjectives are used to describe nouns because we're gonna talk about adverbs later and those are used to describe actions or adjectives. This is where it gets a bit complicated but I really want you to understand the difference between adjectives and adverbs because sometimes you use them in a wrong way and I use them in the wrong way sometimes but we want to be grammatically correct. So adjective is used to describe nouns or pronouns, right? We use adjectives to answer questions like which one, what kind of, how many, how much and the examples are old, new, beautiful, smart, etc. Adverbs describing actions, right? Adverbs answer questions like when, where, how. And very often our adverbs end with"-ly". Carefully. Slowly. But not always. Fast. It's also an adverb. Finally. Now, fast can be both adjective and adverb. If we look at a couple of examples, he is fast. we use fast to describe a pronoun, then it's an adjective, but if we say he runs really fast, we're actually describing a verb and in this case it's an adverb. Just so you know. Then we have our prepositions. We place a preposition before a noun to modify the phrase. About, above, across, on, etc. Conjunction. This is a joining word that we use to connect sentences or different parts of one sentence. But, and, however, after, although, etc. And the last but not the least, articles. I know that You mix them up. If you do mix them up, I have a video explaining how to not mix them up. A or N and the. Basically, we use A or N to mention a thing that we haven't talked about before. There is a mug on my desk, but if I'm talking about one particular mug that I've already mentioned in the conversation, I would say... There is black tea in the mug. In the mug that I mentioned before. A lot of people are telling me, Marina, I want this one resource where I can go and answer all of my questions regarding English grammar. Or Marina, can you recommend a book that I can have on my desk and whenever I have a question, whenever I have an idea, oh my God, I want to learn this, I go to this book. My team and I have created a grammar book that covers the most important aspects of English grammar. It has a chapter on articles, nouns, prepositions, adjectives. And it's not just a book with a set of rules. We tried and gathered the life hacks that we use, that our students use to memorize everything better, to understand everything better. So it's not just you reading your own, you're like, how does that work? It has real life examples. It has real life explanations. And students have left the most amazing reviews about this grammar book. And if you want to take one extra step, You can get a workbook together with this grammar book, which means that you learn something new, and then you have exercises to apply your knowledge and answers to check yourself. We made this handbook really affordable and really content-heavy so that you get real value for money. The link will be down below. Thank you so much for upgrading your English language skills and buying this one-stop-shop book that will answer all of your questions. Now let's talk about basic tenses. We're going to talk about three tenses. Present, past, and future. Some people would argue these three tenses are enough to speak English. They are kind of enough, but of course native speakers use all the tenses. Doesn't mean they understand the construction because they learn everything as kids, but I'm going to explain the basic structure to you because you know we're not native speakers and we don't have this advantage. Now present simple tense is used to describe habits, I drink coffee every morning. the train leaves at 5 pm. And general truths, ice is cold. One thing to remember is that in English there should always be noun or pronoun in a sentence and there always should be a verb. So, for example, if we say I drink coffee every morning, then the action is drink. Sometimes we don't have actions, sometimes we just describe something. And in this case, ice is cold, a verb. is is. We use past tense to describe something that happened in the past, so basically your verb gets either ed on the end, I walked, or if it's an irregular verb, then you just have to learn it. She went home. He drank a glass of beer. And the future tense is, of course, used to describe our future. In this case, we just put will before a verb. She will come back. Let's talk about word... word... word... let's talk about word order in a sentence in English. First of all we have a subject which is a noun or pronoun, then we have a verb or action and then if we need it we have an object which is normally a noun or pronoun as well. So let me give you a quick example. She... subject... smiled at a boy. And then if we need to describe our action with an adverb, remember adverbs describe verbs, we put it right before the verb. For example, she briefly smiled at a a boy. So the adverb comes here. And then if we have adjectives that describe a noun, then they come right before the noun. She smiled at a little boy. Of course, this rule is very basic. The more you learn, the better you become. But there is one last thing I wanted to tell you. Don't make this mistake. Let's look at these three sentences. They often play tennis. Correct. They play tennis often. Also correct. They play often tennis. This is incorrect. Because adverb can never be put between a verb and an object. So this is wrong. Just remember. Because this sounds... this sounds a little weird. Alright, guys. I have a question for you. Do you have articles in your language? My language is Russian. And in Russian we don't have any articles. We don't say... We don't say the, we don't say anything. We refer to nouns. It's just the noun, right? In English we have articles and my problem, and I still think I have it, I miss articles sometimes. Sometimes I just avoid them in general just because they do not exist in my native language. And I remember when I was 16 and I thought I was like super advanced in English, when I came to the UK my friend said, you know Marina, I understand everything that you're saying but you are not using articles at all. and that makes you sound really weird to a native speaker. And he actually, he was a really good friend, so he spent like an hour with me explaining all the articles. So please do not forget about articles when you speak English. Let's talk about them, when and how you use them. There are two articles, a and the. And we use a, we use it to talk about objects that we encounter for the first time in our speech, for the first time in this conversation. and we use the, we mean something specific. So let's start with the first rule. Something specific is always the. For example, Marina, where did you get the dress that you wore yesterday? This is a very specific dress. I only have one dress and I'm pretty sure she means the dress that I was wearing yesterday and that was the specific white dress, whatever. So this is a very specific thing. But if I'm asking somebody, can you get me a dress when you go shopping? I'm not asking for a particular dress. I just need a dress and whatever dress you can find that suits me, just get it. So could you get me a dress when you go shopping? So see the differences in the first example with the specific dress I wore yesterday. I meant the dress that I wore yesterday. When I'm asking to buy a random dress, this is a Another thing to remember, we only use a when we talk about single objects. We cannot say a dresses. This is wrong. Don't do that. But if a word starts with a vowel. A, E, O, U. Okay, you know vowels, right? We replace A with N. An apple, an eggplant, an elephant. Another general rule is when you talk about something for the first time, you say A. When you mention it in your conversation for the second time, you use the. For example, yesterday I went to a party. I mentioned it for the first time, but in the second sentence, I would say the party was amazing. Because I've already stated that I will be talking about a specific party, and in the second sentence, I'm referring to that specific party. So it's the party now, okay? Or... Another example. Yesterday I bought an apple. You know, just a random apple. That apple turned out to be rotten, so I'm taking it back to the store today, okay? So first, I'm not mentioning a particular apple. I just bought an apple. Doesn't matter which apple. Doesn't matter if it's big, doesn't matter if it's small, just an apple. But then when I'm talking that it's rotten, I already mean that apple that is in my fridge, so duh. Apple, okay? However, if we're talking about an object that is one of a kind we always use the. The moon the Sun the Black Sea the Simpsons So we know that there's only one moon that's why we always say the moon we know that there is one Sun so say the Sun again we only know that there's just one family when we're talking about we know that we're talking about The Simpsons right this is the movie so So whenever it's something one of a kind, it's the. Uncountable nouns. What are uncountable nouns? Porridge, oatmeal, milk, whatever you cannot count. Because when we're talking about porridge, you cannot really count all the Cs that are there. And when we're talking about milk, you cannot really count the cells. Yes, you can measure volume, but that's different. We're talking about counting. So uncountable nouns means you cannot count them, right? So with uncountable nouns, Uncountable nouns, we don't use any articles. It's always, I like oatmeal. Can you get me some oatmeal? Can you make some porridge for breakfast? Use some, right? Can I have some milk? I drank milk for breakfast. The only way you would be able to count milk is By adding glasses. So can you give me a glass of milk and then you have this a okay But this a refers to glass not to milk and the second scenario when we don't use an article with nouns is When we have plural countable nouns bicycles computers cameras Bloggers. So whenever these words appear in a sentence, we don't always use any articles. I have three computers at home. I like watching bloggers. I love bicycles. But why articles are so confusing? Because there are always, always, always exclusions. For example, there is a store in your house and they sell Sell specific milk and you want to highlight that you like the milk from that store because it's one of a kind. You really mean that milk and you cannot get it anywhere else. Then you can say, oh my god, I love the milk from that store because you're being specific. And again, I just mentioned that with milk, we don't use any the, but we don't use any the or a when we don't mention specific milk. We just mention milk as food. But if we mean means some kind of milk that is only sold in a store that's one block away or in your house, say the. Same applies to countable nouns in plural forms. If that shop also sells apples that you love, you can say, oh, I love the apples from that store. They are the best in the world. And people realize that you mean specific apples that are only sold there and they're one of a kind. Okay, please remember that. And feel free, whenever you're watching this video, if it's confusing, feel free to stop. Feel free to open your exercise book, rewind the video and write everything down again. Because I know it's super confusing and I know even like super advanced students make mistakes in articles. So this topic is very important. It's crucial, but I'm here to help. There's a quite similar rule for abstract nouns and when you're talking about something in general you don't need an article. For example, information on the internet is very useful. So information is this abstract noun you don't mean any specific information you just mean that information that's available to everyone on the internet is very useful but again just to compare um when you use particular information that you receive the information that i read on wikipedia regarding youtube is super useful then you need to insert the definite article the because you mean some specific information. But when you're talking about information in general, you don't use articles at all, okay? Never use articles with proper nouns. Tuesday, Monday, New York. You can distinguish those proper nouns by the capital letter that they start with. New York is with capital letters. Washington, D.C., Russia, London. Tuesday, Monday, Wednesday, February, March. All of those nouns do not require an article. Okay, never use articles with the names of the countries. Dmitry makes this mistake all the time and I keep correcting him. Russia, France, Monaco, all of those countries do not require an article, but of course there are exclusions to this rule. If a country's name consists of several words, the United Kingdom, because the refers to kingdom here, so the United Kingdom the United States of America. So whenever the name consists of several nouns, you use the. Also, no articles when you speak about languages. And remember, at the beginning of this video, I asked you to write a comment below what language you speak and if you have articles in that language. So you can say, I speak French, and there is no article. I speak Russian, and there are no articles in Russian. so we don't have any article before the name of the language. And the last but not the least, when you're talking about meals, don't use articles. I've already had lunch today. I've already had breakfast. Let's head out to dinner. But again, we're just talking about non-specific meals, just stating that we had meal. But if you want to say that you are sick from the dinner you had yesterday, then you need definite article because you uh mean that specific dinner where you probably ate a sushi and you got food poisoning so uh when you mean a specific dinner it would probably be something in the past uh you use the so articles are very confusing and uh as an english language learner i think i have worked and learned about them maybe like 10 times in my life i just keep coming back to this i think Of course, it's the matter of practice, but this repetition, constant repetition of a topic that is confusing for you, I think it's really helpful for you as an English language learner. If you want another class from me on articles, please let me know in comments down below. below and I will be happy to make another video. And now let's move on to another topic that is kind of endless in English and the topic is tenses. Today I'm going to teach you which tense to use when you see certain words in the sentence. We call them marker words. So sometimes you see them and you're like, oh, when people use this word, they would typically use this particular. tense and I'm gonna teach you those words so if you're interested continue watching before I start quick disclaimer English evolves all the time yes there are grammar rules and for some tenses especially like present perfect if it's The test taker creates a sentence for you, puts one of those marker words in that sentence. There's like 99% chance he wants you to use present perfect because he wants to know whether you've learned those words by heart. But when you talk to a native speaker, when you're in this relaxed environment, people use these words with other tenses as well. So there is no like 100% guarantee if you see one of the words that I've mentioned, they use like that particular tense. But if it's a test, I would say it's like 90% plus guarantee that you should use this particular tense. But I would always look at the context, okay? So you see the word and then you look at the context. We'll explain you when we use certain tenses. So always, always, always pay attention to the context. Let's start with the simplest tense ever. Present simple. Present simple is a tense that is used for regular actions, something that happens to you every day. every night, every month. So something that you do regularly and also for some things that are pre-scheduled like the airplane arrives at 5 p.m. The marker words for this tense usually, every day, every week, so whenever you see every that's probably present simple. Often, seldom or the synonym for it is rarely and rarely is more American. It's for actions that don't happen too often. Always, never. Sometimes, as a rule, hardly ever, hardly ever is like very very rarely, hardly ever do I get 12 hours of sleep. for a night. Today, on Sunday, from time to time. I go to swimming pool from time to time. The next tense that is also simple, past simple, and this is the tense that we use to describe actions in the past, and it doesn't really matter what kind of result we have right now, because that's present perfect for past simple. Think of it as telling a story, telling a story about something that happened to you. last year in 1994. So you're just describing the series of actions or just one action or something that you were doing back then. So just think of it this way. You're describing something that happened to you, something you did a year ago, two years ago, etc. Yesterday, the day before yesterday, last week, month, year, etc. Whenever you see last, that's really past simple. Ago is also a great marker word. So whenever you see ago again 90% plus It's gonna be past simple a week ago a month ago a year ago the other day Which means on one of the days that have passed in? 1994 or any year in the past once Once upon a time there lived an elephant in Africa. When? And you would insert something in the past. At three o'clock yesterday or at three o'clock the day before yesterday. That day. By the way guys, if you want these words but written down, something that you can print out, something that you can have in front of you on your desk, we have created a memo for you. Where we have all of those marker words, you also have a test which is divided by certain levels of English so you can check where you're at right now with your tenses. There is also a table that describes how to build different tenses and there's also a table with irregular verbs. Remember we're talking about past simple right now. When we're talking in the past, a verb goes into the second form and there are regular verbs like I walked in the park, I published this video. But there are also irregular verbs like I put my phone on the table yesterday or whatever. I drove five miles an hour. Irregular verbs are formed in a different way. It's not just putting a D in the end. It is something else. And we have created a table for you with these verbs and also how to learn them easily. There is a small fee to download this table. It's $1 fee just to support our designers and us. So it's me and Venia who created this table and also my team. The link is below. You're gonna have it all in front of you. You're gonna have all the words so you can just print them out. Hang them in front of you and always have them in front of your eyes. So whenever you have questions, you can just refer to that memo. By the way, in this video, we're not going to talk about all the 12 tenses. We're going to talk about present simple, past simple, future simple, present progressive, and present perfect. But in the table, we have more tenses. We have seven tenses in total in terms of these marker words. Future simple. Future Simple talks about future actions and something for you to remember. Future Simple is when you're not 100% sure about... something for example you have an appointment with your friend and he says I will come in an hour so that means he's 90% sure that he will come in an hour maybe he won't come because you can't control other people but if you have airplane that leaves at 5 p.m. You see, I'm already using present simple. So when it's something that you're 100% sure of, it's present simple. It's like for timetables, opening, schedules and stuff. The store opens at 9 a.m. The store closes. at 9 p.m. That's all present simple. But when we're talking about actions we're not sure about, like 90% sure, well, we are sure, 90% sure, but we're still kinda guessing. That's future simple. And the marker words are tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, next week, month, year, et cetera, in an hour, in a second, in a minute, et cetera, in the 22nd century, soon, later, someday, and someday of course meaning someday in the future. In a day, in a week, in five years. So whenever you say in plus and according to the context you're not 100% sure. That's usually simple. In the future, one of these days. Present progressive and in British English you would call it present continuous. It also depends on the textbook that you're using but it's pretty much the same. America would say present progressive or present continuous. The tense that is used to describe something that is happening. Right now. So the word, the first marker word obvious now, right now, at the moment, today, to other marker words. Look, listen. Like for example, if you're trying to pay somebody's attention, something like look, they are fine. We need to stop them. We are paying somebody's attention to an action that's happening right now. Still, they are still fighting at this very moment. Currently, these days, this week, this month, this year constantly. I'm constantly hearing sirens when I'm recording videos in this apartment because we're very close to the center and something is constantly going on. You see how I'm using this constantly and stuff. And the last but not the least, we're gonna talk about present perfect. And I know you mix it with past simple very often. So present perfect focuses, it's a present tense, okay? It's not a past tense because it's present perfect. And it focuses on the result result you have right now. Come on guys. Present perfect is a present tense. It focuses on the result that you have right now. It does not focus on the details of a past action because for that we have past simple. For results right now we have present perfect. So for example, I have eaten. This means that you are not hungry if you're kind of translating, explaining. If you say I ate pizza yesterday for lunch. That means you're telling a story about what happened yesterday you're not really focusing on something that you have right now this is a way for you to determine which tense to use and marker words of course like for this tense marker words that you've probably learned at school ever and ever since already yet whenever you see them on the test oh my god i think that's like 95 97 chance that the test takers want to test you whether you've learned those marker words or not ever never just already yet Recently, lately. Lately means you've started doing something recently again. I've started walking every night lately. Before, always, so far, at last. It's the first time. It's the first time since we've known each other. Something happened. All my life, all morning. Let's talk about English students least favorite tense, which is present perfect because it is so confusing. I was taught, at school that present perfect is a past tense, which is not, because if we look at its name, it says present perfect, which means that yes, we're talking about our actions in the past, but their result is still here with us in the present. This is why it's present perfect. It's a present tense, and it's really important not to mix it up with a past tense. It's really important to use it in the right way. So today we're going to talk about present perfect. One of the most important things to remember about present perfect is that we don't really care when exactly something happened. For example, I say I've lost my keys. I don't really care if I lost them yesterday. I don't really care if I lost them a week ago. I care about the result. I've lost my keys and I can't get into my house. This is the result. And so it doesn't matter when exactly The action happened, it matters that the result is still here, it's my present, I can't get into my house. The way we form this tense is that we use either have or has. I have, you have, they have, we have, it, she, he has. After that, we use our verb in the third form. And here, please pay attention, we have regular verbs where the third form is the same as second and is easy to use. easily formed by adding edy play played played stop stopped stopped and we have irregular verbs that you have to learn run ran run bring brought brought rise rose risen so we use the third form and please remember that some regular verbs actually change the way they're written so for example say sad sad we get rid of why in the second and third form and we add ID. Study, studied, studied. So just pay attention to the spelling of those words. So we have has or have. We have a verb in the third form and if it's a regular verb we add ED. If it's irregular verb we just learn the third form. And very often we have a word that tells us that we have to use present perfect. Ever, never, since, or ever. yet. Remember what I told you, we don't really care about the exact timing of an action, so whenever you have a year ago, in 1990, in March 2015, that means that you would probably need to use past simple, because again in present perfect we don't care about the exact point at time, we don't care about the exact day or exact year, we just care about the result. So, I have never eaten pizza in my life. Okay, the result, if I try pizza, it's going to be something new for me. I've never eaten a taco. I've been to Great Britain once. That means if I go now, it wouldn't be a new country for me. But it doesn't really matter whether I've been in Great Britain in 2015 or 2020. In this case, we would use past simple. I've been to Italy many times. Also, when you are taking... your TOEFL test, when you're taking your IELTS test or whatever test that you're taking, please do not contract your verbs. Don't say I've been there. Don't write I've been there. Please say and write I have been there. This is formal academic English and this is what's required from you when you're taking a formal test, when you're writing a formal essay, of course when you're chatting to your friends, to your classmates, when you're recording a video on YouTube or watching my videos, you're free to comment below. Oh my god, I was scared by the slaps. When you're commenting on this video, you can totally contract your verbs and say I've been there, I've enjoyed this video so much, I've learned so much from this video. Marina, you're an amazing teacher. You are being too modest. So feel free to contract below this video, but please don't use contractions when you are Taking an academic test. The negative form in this tense formed by adding not I have not done this I have not seen this before or if you want to make it shorter you can say I haven't done this before I haven't seen this before when you forming a question in present perfect this have goes into the beginning of the sentence have you ever been to the United States if you want to add wh question your wh word comes first who what when whatever what have you done today? This wh comes first and then you have your have or has and then you have your verb or how many times have you been to the UK? Again your question comes first then you have has or have and then you have your verb. It is really important to learn the word order because when you are speaking to a native speaker and when your intonation is not right, when your word order is not right, people might not understand you at all because when you're talking to native speakers they are used to talking talking to other native speakers, and it might be a little hard for them to understand you if you have an accent or if you're mixing up word order. This is why whenever you're learning something, please make sure you're learning everything, accent, word order, pronunciation, that's really important in any language. Okay, when do we use present perfect? We use present perfect to talk about actions that started in the past or happened in the past and still have effect on our present. I've lost my keys, I can't enter the house. They've missed the bus, that means they will be late. I've already eaten means I'm not hungry. So we don't care about when exactly the action happened, we care about the result in present. I've lost my money, I've lost my club, and now I've lost my guests. We all- We also use present perfect when we talk about our life experiences. I've been to the UK. I've studied in Germany. I've done this so many times before. When you talk about your experiences, about things you've done before, you use present perfect. I've never driven before. Also, if you have an unfinished time word, for example, this year, this week, today, and want to talk about actions that have happened in the period that is still ongoing, you use present perfect. Let me give you a couple of examples. We've already repaired our car twice this year. Oh my God. And there might be another repair coming up. You've already done so many things today. You've accomplished so much during this day. And you. still have time to do something else. You've already slept for five hours today, stop sleeping, come on, time to work. So whenever we have this ongoing timestamp we use present perfect. Nah, I've already seen someone cry today. Also quick difference between present perfect and past simple. If you say I worked here for five years that means you're still working here. If you say I worked here for five years that means you're no longer working here. You see the subtle difference in using of tenses makes everything completely different and gives a completely different context to a person you're talking to. And let me give you a quick exercise. He hungry in 1990. Which tense would you use here? Another example He hungry two times So in the first example you have past simple because it has a timestamp 1990 He visited Hungary in 1990, but in the second sentence you don't have a timestamp You just have a number of times he has visited Hungary. So He has visited Hungary two times. Guys, if you like how I teach you tenses, I have a whole course on English language tenses. It's really detailed, really interactive with a lot of exercises. Because once you got information about tenses... you really need to practice them. It has a lot of additional materials for you to practice, to learn, to print out and put on your desk. Only for you guys, because you're watching this video and you're watching up to the very end, you're getting an exclusive promo code to take my course with a discount. The link and the promo code will be below. Thank you guys for watching this video up to the very end. Please subscribe to this channel if you're learning English and you need additional resources to enhance your learning journey. If you know someone who's learning English and who needs help, please share this channel. And of course, do not forget to follow me on Instagram, where I post stories about my life in the US as an immigrant, and also post short videos about English, and also about my life in California. Thank you guys so much, and I'll see you very soon in my next videos. Bye bye.

and of course we're going to talk about articles. Is it a or is it the? We're going to talk about that and we're going to wrap up this class by talking about tenses in English. So if you're learning English, this class is for you. Let's start.

When I first arrived in the US, I was super confused about some prepositions. Like am I at the farmer's market or in the farmer's market? My billboard was on Times Square or in Times Square.

I am at the hotel or I'm in the hotel. These prepositions are very confusing, but first of all, whichever preposition you decide to use, native speakers are going to understand you. No one's going to tell you, no, no, no, this is a wrong preposition.

Like if you're talking to native speakers, normally no one would tell you that something is wrong. But if you're taking a test, yes, this is where problems might start, because this is where you will get lower points if you make mistakes. So let's start. with prepositions in English.

Okay, let's start with at versus in. The rule that you have to remember in is used with major big things like countries, cities, continents. I was born in Europe. Well, Saint Petersburg is kind of Eastern Europe.

I consider it Europe. He was born in Italy. He was born in Rome.

I was born in Liverpool in a railroad switch house. We use at with smaller, insignificant kind of places. So I'm at the farmer's market. Because farmer's market is relatively small. Same with buildings.

I'm at the airport. I'm gonna meet you at the restaurant. With small insignificant things we're using at.

I work at the University Stadium. I'm a security guard. The next set of rules is regarding all versus all of. So we use all of when we have pronouns. Pronouns are us, they, them, me, you.

Those are all pronouns. So we say all versus all. All of us are going to Malibu next week.

All of them have completed their TOEFL test. So whenever it's a pronoun, we have all of. All of me.

However, in all other cases, we have all. All the people are forced to stay at home. All the students have to wear masks.

All the children need to stay at home. All the gods, all the heavens. By the way, guys, if you're looking for a manual.

or like a book for grammar. My team and I have created a grammar book with all the necessary rules that you need. We have prepositions, we have tenses, we have conditionals. Oh my God, I hate conditionals.

What would have happened if he had come five minutes earlier? Like all. of those clauses and consequences.

All of that is explained in a very simple manner. It's a very, very visual grammar book that you can use every single day when you are doing something in English, when you have this question, oh my god, what do I use here? Our grammar book would be there to help you. Moreover, if you want more practice, we have a special practice exercise book created specifically for this grammar book.

So you can read the topic on a specific grammar rule. and then practice that grammar rule. It's a very affordable manual created by me and my team. It's brand new, it's fresh, no old-fashioned words, no old-fashioned rules.

I use it all the time with my students when I'm creating different classes. The link will be below. Please make sure to download it, print it out, or you can use a PDF on your computer or your iPad. I, by the way, love using iPad Pro where you can write things.

inside the PDF with a pen. But it's up to you, whatever you have at home, or just print it out, and have it on your desk at all times, because this is something you can consult when you have any questions regarding grammar. Again, the link will be below. Thank you so much for downloading it, and it would really help you go through my videos as well. The next section, in versus on versus at, when we're talking about time.

So when we talk about general measurements, like I'll be there in two minutes, I'll see you in two days, we're gonna travel abroad in two months. So this in is used with general measurements. I'll be there in two days.

there in 20 minutes however when we have a specific date and time we use on and at I will see you on Monday at 12 p.m. the classes start on September 21st I'll go now if I may we'll see you on Friday and remember that in is also used with a year. I was born in 1990. He will come back in 2025. That was in 1994. Beside versus besides.

So beside is a preposition that... means nearby. We were camping beside the river.

We were camping on the shore, right? We're really close to the river and we're camping there. Besides, as an adverb and preposition, that means in addition to.

Besides, we need your support in this venture. So this is something you would start your sentence with. Besides two suitcases, I'm taking three boxes with me. So it means in addition to my boxes, I'm taking my suitcases. You mean beside my marriage?

Among versus between. Among is used when you have a group of objects or people, usually three or more. She's very popular among her classmates.

She's a very popular girl, right? I can choose among all your t-shirts. You have like 30 in your closet.

Oh my god. Among our homes. Between is when you have two objects.

I can decide between going to the cinema and staying at home. Between us. On versus upon. They're actually interchangeable. You can use both.

But upon. Upon is really formal and unfashioned. Remember this?

Once upon a time, there was this little girl who lived in the forest, blah, blah, blah. All the fairy tales will start like that. Put your book on a table.

We usually just use on in this context. To versus than. There are several words that can only be followed by to.

And these words are senior, junior, prefer, prior, superior, inferior, preferable. He is senior. Senior to me in service, right?

We're using to. I prefer coffee to tea. I like coffee more. He is superior to me in terms of grades, which means he's higher than me. Is Matthew superior to me?

So with these, we use to. In other cases, we use than. He's better than me. She's more beautiful than me, etc.

You're no better than he is. In versus into. We use in when we have a person, an animal, or an object located in a location.

I was sitting in the classroom. He was in the house when the policeman came. Here he is in your office.

We use into. in a sense of coming toward something. He came into my office. So he was kind of entering a closed space and he was moving toward me.

So he came into my office. We're driving into garage. So this is this movement inside. Then we use into.

Came into the store. For versus since. For measures a period. Since marks the start date.

I've been vlogging for 5 years already. I've been vlogging since 2014. It's actually 6. I've been following... Lingua Marina?

Wow, this is a great example for you to practice. Write this down below. Two sentences. I've been following Lingua Marina for two years. I've been following Lingua Marina since 2018 when I first saw her video about TOEFL.

By the way, guys, let me know when did you first start watching me and why? What was that video that grabbed your attention and made you subscribe and made you follow me? This would be really useful for my future videos because I would make sure I produce more content. that attracts people's attention. Please comment down below and thank you so much for doing that and thank you so much for practicing your English down in comments below.

Agree with versus agree to. Agree with is used for agreement with a person. I agree with you.

We need to practice English daily. I agree with our president that we need to support our economy. I agree with Dinesh. Agree to is used for agreement to a plan.

proposal or idea. I agree to your proposal. Let's start a company together.

I agree to your idea to share this video with all of my friends. You'll agree to anything. Now let's talk about two versus four. The first thing that we're gonna do, we're gonna talk about when we use to.

The first case when we use to is when we're talking about a destination. I am going to Germany. To Germany.

the end of April. I'm going to Munich by the way. Or there is another example. We are going to a restaurant tonight. To a restaurant.

This is a direction. I'm not gonna back out of that. I want to go to Spain. Second case. If we're talking about time and if we're talking in British English, what they love to say it's a Quarter to two, which means 1.45.

Like Americans, well, I've never heard Americans saying quarter to two or twenty to two. And when I first heard it in Great Britain, I was a little confused, but they say that a lot. It's quarter to two. Americans would say it's 1.45, because quarter is 15 minutes. And there is a second case of using to with time.

For example, the restaurant is open from Monday to Friday. So we can kind of replace to with until, and this is an another way to use it. So, for example, the restaurant is open until 5 p.m.

or the restaurant is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. And this is when we use to. But I do Monday, Wednesday, Friday from 7 to 9. When we compare something, I prefer traveling to sitting at home.

I prefer sleeping to working. I prefer watching Marina's videos to studying by myself. I prefer metaphysics to theology.

The next type of use is when we're talking about a receiver of an action. I gave my book to my follower. I sent a letter to my friend. I wrote an email to my colleague.

And last but not the least when you want to express a reason for your action. For example, I came here to see you. I did it to make more money.

I've started learning English to get a job promotion. So we're explaining why we've started doing something and this is when we use TO. I came to see you.

Now let's move on to talking about for. You see what I've just used? Let's move on to talking because what it is, this is our direction.

We're moving to the next section of our class. We're talking about for now. When we talk about benefits, we use for.

So for example, you're doing something for your health or for the benefit of your parent. I bought a gift for my friend. I stopped eating gluten for the benefit of my health.

Why you didn't get for my health? 4 also indicates periods of times. I've been living in the US for 4 years.

I've been learning English for several months now. I've been watching Lingua Marina channel for over 2 years and I love her content. She's amazing.

She's the best influencer out there. Oh, you are being modest. Also, when we talk about schedule, we use for.

I made an appointment with my doctor for March 13th. March 13th is my birthday. I'd rather reschedule it for March 14th.

Your flight is scheduled for May 31st. Again, we're talking about schedule. A hearing is scheduled for today. We also use for to express a reason.

He was fired from job For being constantly late. He has been late so many times and he's been fired for that. Or she's been promoted for her good English because her English reached a certain level and she qualified for a promotion.

And we also use for to express a purpose of something. Marina creates videos for improving your English. You watch my videos. for improving your language.

Travel a lot for work. There are also cases when TO and FOR can be both used. Let's talk about some examples so I can illustrate this better.

Let's compare two examples. He's studying English for work. He is studying English to be able to talk to his American friends.

So what we notice here is that we use FOR with a noun. He learns English for fun. He learns English for work. He learns English for his master's degree.

But when we have a verb, we say too. He learns English to talk to his friends in the US. He learns English to get a job promotion. He learns English to study abroad. See the difference?

Now let's move on to another example when both to and for can be used. My friend brought lunch to me. My friend brought lunch for me. Now both are correct, but they have slightly different meanings. My friend brought lunch to me, we're talking about direction.

He brought lunch to my apartment, put it on my table and I started eating. But when we say my friend bought lunch for me, we really want to emphasize that he's doing something nice for me. He thought about me when he was getting lunch so he got one for me.

Apologize can be used with both to and for because you apologize for something, for something that you've done. I apologize for for breaking your cup. I apologize for this video being too short. But you apologize to someone.

I apologize to you for this video being too short. I apologize to my friend for forgetting about her birthday. I apologize for the language. Apologize to you.

Travel to and travel for. I traveled to Russia I travel to Paris, I travel to Germany, but I travel for work, I travel to Russia for LinguaFest, which is a festival by my company, I travel to Germany for Four meetings. You see, so four is for the reason, two is for the destination. Yes, you must travel to France immediately and put that directly into the hands of the king and him alone.

Men can travel for work. Families unite. Wait, four or... or wait to. Wait for someone or something.

I'm waiting for the concert tonight. I am waiting for my dad to come and visit us in California. But you wait to do something.

I cannot wait to see my family in Russia. Or I cannot wait to travel this summer. What's your plan?

Cannot wait to show you this. When we use ask, we normally use for. Ask for something.

Can I ask you for a cup of tea, please? Can I ask you for a favor? Don't ask for permission, ask for forgiveness. When we talk about belonging, we normally say to.

It belongs to me, it belongs to you, and never belong for, so don't say that. She belong to me. When we say care, we care for somebody.

I care for my dog, I care for Alex, I care for my family. You care for him. And the last but not the least, when we're saying prepare, we always say prepare for something. I will need to prepare for the festival. Prepare for battle!

Let's do a quick quiz. He lives 13 Long Street, and you have to select either in, on, or at. I'm visiting my grandma on, in, at a hospital. I like traveling to, in, at a train.

Now you're gonna get the right answers at the end of this video, but make sure you write your answers down so you can check yourself later. Now let's talk about some rules. The first rule is when we use at. At is used with a very exact place. Think small building.

Like something that is small, you would always use at. At the door. At the hospital.

At school. At the university. At the table. At the door. So something specific would always be at.

But when you're thinking about big things like, I don't know, Panama or Guatemala or Saint Petersburg or London, you would never say at. Because at only applies to smaller things. And London, Panama, Guatemala, those huge geographical locations.

So you can't be at London. You're in London. In London, yeah.

But I'm at the desk. I'm at home. I'm at my studio. I am at the bus stop, etc. At this university.

At the door. At school. We use on with streets and avenues. I live on Park Avenue. On North Avenue.

I live on Green Street. So on is always with a street. But please remember there are always exceptions. Like if you're talking about university and you're talking about campus. You say I live on campus.

On campus. Campus is this location where you have your dorms, you have your classes, you have your restaurants, cafeterias, etc. So on campus would be an exception, but normally on is only used with streets.

Now when we're talking about the street, there is another thing to remember. When we have a number, then we use at. I live at 13 Green Street.

At 45 Dunstan Street. But when we don't have a number, like I'm asking you, where are you right now? and you're answering i'm on market street you don't give me a number and then use on on green street so at is used when we give the full address street number etc on is when we just mention the street and when we talk about something bigger than the street we use the preposition in so for example you have different parts of town we are having lunch in chinatown or we are having lunch in knob hill this is like a district here in san francisco with cities as i already mentioned i live in london i live in london i live in new york i live in new york we have been in new york for two weeks we are in los altos hills with states i live in california live in california with parts of countries my friends spent vacation in the south of india with countries i used to live in russia With continents, my sister is in Africa.

I love being in Africa. So to sum things up, we use at with specific locations, on with less specific locations like streets, and in with bigger locations like cities, towns, countries, parts of countries. If you're already feeling overwhelmed with what's going on and we haven't yet started the most interesting part of the video where I'm going to explain... More things about prepositions.

I would highly recommend a book called Grammar is All You Need. It is produced by my company called LinguaTrip by Certified Teachers. This is a handbook that covers all the necessary topics in English grammar, and it has a chapter on prepositions, it has a chapter on tenses, a chapter on grammar rules, and it's not just rules. We all get bored by those boring textbooks.

In this book, just like in all of my videos, we tried to come up with different life hacks so you could understand everything better. And also, it's not just you reading the material. We have included a lot of exercises so you could practice things.

Because with grammar, it's like if you just watch this video and you switch it off and you don't practice, it just goes away. Like, well, there's something in the back of your mind, but it really goes away. And because you're watching this video, first of all, you're getting 66% off this workbook. And second... you get a free chapter on prepositions because i really want you to remember these prepositions that we learned so if you follow the link below you're going to be able to receive a free chapter and 66 off the grammar is all you need workbook this workbook has 16 chapters on the most important topics of the english grammar done by my company done by lingua trip with love with passion for you guys with passion for english Again, the link is in description below.

66% off and free chapter on English prepositions. Something that we cover in this video so you could practice, so you can print it out, put it on your desk and never ever forget what's the right way to use prepositions in English. The link is below.

Now let's move a little further with our prepositions. I gave you some basic rules, but now we're gonna explore more examples. In is also used when we are talking about an enclosed space. Something that has a roof, something that has walls, in a car, in a box, in a building. I am waiting for you in my car.

They're in a car. Can you please help me find a pen in this box? In a box.

Don't put your wallet in a pocket. Now listen carefully right now. We're moving to on and we use on with a bus, on a bus.

And you might ask Marina, but why in a car but on a bus? Wait a minute, I'm gonna explain. The other... Words that we use on with are words that represent surface. Like this table is a surface.

On a table. Your floor is a surface. On the floor.

Wall behind me is also surface. On the wall. We also use on when we talk about left and right.

On the left. On the right. Or vice versa.

Depending on whatever you see. I think it's on the left for you, on the right for you. Next to or along the side of a river, for example. Cambridge is on the river Cam.

Now, interesting part. Why in a car but on a bus? In is used with means of transportation where you can't stand up.

Oh my God, English, you're so complicated. So you can't stand up in a car. So you say in a car.

You can't stand up in a helicopter. But you can't stand up on an airplane. So on an airplane, in a helicopter, on a bus, in a car, on the bus, in a car, in a taxi, because you can't stand up in a taxi.

I know guys, this is why I recommend having something like a grammar book so you can refer to things or at least have a script of this video in front of your eyes. On a ship, on a boat, on a plane, on a train, we use on with a means of transport where we can stand up. We can stand up on a plane, we can stand up on a bus, we can stand up on a boat. And also maybe another hint, we use on with a means of transportation where there is no roof. On a horse, on a boat, boat doesn't have a roof normally.

You can have both but on a boat so normally you don't have a roof on top of you when you're on the upper deck. On a bike. You can't really stand up on a bike but it doesn't have a roof so it's on a bike. On your bike.

On a boat. Another Another thing that can be super, super, super confusing for you guys. Sometimes you hear in a hospital and sometimes you hear at a hospital.

Both of those are grammatically correct, but guess what? They have a different meaning. So when you're saying I'm in a hospital, that means you're a patient. You're actually receiving treatment.

I don't remember the accident. I just remember waking up in a hospital. My uncle is in the hospital right now receiving treatment for his, I don't know, acne.

I don't know if you go to the hospital for that, but he broke a leg. He's in a hospital. Let's do that. I'm giving birth in a hospital.

But you can also say I'm at the hospital, but that would mean that you're just doing something there, that you're not a patient. I am visiting my uncle at the hospital because you're at the hospital, not as a patient receiving treatment. You're a guest. ...visiting your uncle. In college, my brother volunteered at a local hospital.

Again, he wasn't a patient. This is why we use at the hospital. The same goes for school, museum, library... or any other institution. And we also use at with events.

I'm at this Lady Gaga concert. Okay guys, I hope it wasn't super confusing for you. Again, if you want to make sure you remember all the prepositions, make sure to follow the link below and download the free chapter of the grammar book.

And if you feel like you're willing to invest in your education, just a little sum of money using 66% off the grammar book will be even cheaper for you because you're watching this video. And now let's check your test. I guess you already know everything, but let's do it anyways. He lives at 13 Long Street because we give the full address. We give the number and the street address.

I'm visiting my grandma at the hospital. Why? Because I'm not a patient.

She's a patient. My grandma is in the hospital receiving treatment, and I'm visiting her at the hospital because I am not a patient. I like traveling on a train. You can also say I love traveling by train, but this is another topic for another video.

Here, because we remember that we can stand up on the train, we use on. I like to travel on a train. This class is going to be about basic grammar, something that you should have learned while back at school.

You might have forgotten basic grammar, but this is why I am here, because we're going to talk about really important things. Parts of speech, noun, pronoun, verb, what does that mean? Basic tenses that you have to know. And third is word order. And if you watch this video up to the very end, if you understand the concepts, if you learn them, there is 99% chance that you would be able to speak English at a level where you can explain what you need, explain what you're doing for life, or even work with people.

Because what we're going to talk about creates foundation for your language. So please... Make sure you listen carefully. Let's do it! First of all, let's talk about parts of speech.

We have nouns. These are our objects or subjects. Cat, dog, mom.

Table. These are all nouns. Pronouns.

These are words that substitute a noun to avoid repetition. Cat. He. Dog.

Let's say she. Mom. She. table it then if we have plural they we etc verb we use verbs to express actions go read eat adjective. Now here listen carefully adjectives are used to describe nouns because we're gonna talk about adverbs later and those are used to describe actions or adjectives.

This is where it gets a bit complicated but I really want you to understand the difference between adjectives and adverbs because sometimes you use them in a wrong way and I use them in the wrong way sometimes but we want to be grammatically correct. So adjective is used to describe nouns or pronouns, right? We use adjectives to answer questions like which one, what kind of, how many, how much and the examples are old, new, beautiful, smart, etc. Adverbs describing actions, right?

Adverbs answer questions like when, where, how. And very often our adverbs end with"-ly". Carefully. Slowly.

But not always. Fast. It's also an adverb. Finally. Now, fast can be both adjective and adverb.

If we look at a couple of examples, he is fast. we use fast to describe a pronoun, then it's an adjective, but if we say he runs really fast, we're actually describing a verb and in this case it's an adverb. Just so you know. Then we have our prepositions. We place a preposition before a noun to modify the phrase.

About, above, across, on, etc. Conjunction. This is a joining word that we use to connect sentences or different parts of one sentence.

But, and, however, after, although, etc. And the last but not the least, articles. I know that You mix them up.

If you do mix them up, I have a video explaining how to not mix them up. A or N and the. Basically, we use A or N to mention a thing that we haven't talked about before. There is a mug on my desk, but if I'm talking about one particular mug that I've already mentioned in the conversation, I would say... There is black tea in the mug.

In the mug that I mentioned before. A lot of people are telling me, Marina, I want this one resource where I can go and answer all of my questions regarding English grammar. Or Marina, can you recommend a book that I can have on my desk and whenever I have a question, whenever I have an idea, oh my God, I want to learn this, I go to this book.

My team and I have created a grammar book that covers the most important aspects of English grammar. It has a chapter on articles, nouns, prepositions, adjectives. And it's not just a book with a set of rules.

We tried and gathered the life hacks that we use, that our students use to memorize everything better, to understand everything better. So it's not just you reading your own, you're like, how does that work? It has real life examples.

It has real life explanations. And students have left the most amazing reviews about this grammar book. And if you want to take one extra step, You can get a workbook together with this grammar book, which means that you learn something new, and then you have exercises to apply your knowledge and answers to check yourself.

We made this handbook really affordable and really content-heavy so that you get real value for money. The link will be down below. Thank you so much for upgrading your English language skills and buying this one-stop-shop book that will answer all of your questions. Now let's talk about basic tenses. We're going to talk about three tenses.

Present, past, and future. Some people would argue these three tenses are enough to speak English. They are kind of enough, but of course native speakers use all the tenses. Doesn't mean they understand the construction because they learn everything as kids, but I'm going to explain the basic structure to you because you know we're not native speakers and we don't have this advantage.

Now present simple tense is used to describe habits, I drink coffee every morning. the train leaves at 5 pm. And general truths, ice is cold. One thing to remember is that in English there should always be noun or pronoun in a sentence and there always should be a verb. So, for example, if we say I drink coffee every morning, then the action is drink.

Sometimes we don't have actions, sometimes we just describe something. And in this case, ice is cold, a verb. is is. We use past tense to describe something that happened in the past, so basically your verb gets either ed on the end, I walked, or if it's an irregular verb, then you just have to learn it. She went home.

He drank a glass of beer. And the future tense is, of course, used to describe our future. In this case, we just put will before a verb. She will come back.

Let's talk about word... word... word...

let's talk about word order in a sentence in English. First of all we have a subject which is a noun or pronoun, then we have a verb or action and then if we need it we have an object which is normally a noun or pronoun as well. So let me give you a quick example.

She... subject... smiled at a boy. And then if we need to describe our action with an adverb, remember adverbs describe verbs, we put it right before the verb. For example, she briefly smiled at a a boy.

So the adverb comes here. And then if we have adjectives that describe a noun, then they come right before the noun. She smiled at a little boy. Of course, this rule is very basic. The more you learn, the better you become.

But there is one last thing I wanted to tell you. Don't make this mistake. Let's look at these three sentences.

They often play tennis. Correct. They play tennis often. Also correct.

They play often tennis. This is incorrect. Because adverb can never be put between a verb and an object.

So this is wrong. Just remember. Because this sounds... this sounds a little weird. Alright, guys.

I have a question for you. Do you have articles in your language? My language is Russian.

And in Russian we don't have any articles. We don't say... We don't say the, we don't say anything.

We refer to nouns. It's just the noun, right? In English we have articles and my problem, and I still think I have it, I miss articles sometimes.

Sometimes I just avoid them in general just because they do not exist in my native language. And I remember when I was 16 and I thought I was like super advanced in English, when I came to the UK my friend said, you know Marina, I understand everything that you're saying but you are not using articles at all. and that makes you sound really weird to a native speaker. And he actually, he was a really good friend, so he spent like an hour with me explaining all the articles. So please do not forget about articles when you speak English.

Let's talk about them, when and how you use them. There are two articles, a and the. And we use a, we use it to talk about objects that we encounter for the first time in our speech, for the first time in this conversation. and we use the, we mean something specific. So let's start with the first rule.

Something specific is always the. For example, Marina, where did you get the dress that you wore yesterday? This is a very specific dress.

I only have one dress and I'm pretty sure she means the dress that I was wearing yesterday and that was the specific white dress, whatever. So this is a very specific thing. But if I'm asking somebody, can you get me a dress when you go shopping?

I'm not asking for a particular dress. I just need a dress and whatever dress you can find that suits me, just get it. So could you get me a dress when you go shopping? So see the differences in the first example with the specific dress I wore yesterday.

I meant the dress that I wore yesterday. When I'm asking to buy a random dress, this is a Another thing to remember, we only use a when we talk about single objects. We cannot say a dresses. This is wrong. Don't do that.

But if a word starts with a vowel. A, E, O, U. Okay, you know vowels, right? We replace A with N.

An apple, an eggplant, an elephant. Another general rule is when you talk about something for the first time, you say A. When you mention it in your conversation for the second time, you use the. For example, yesterday I went to a party.

I mentioned it for the first time, but in the second sentence, I would say the party was amazing. Because I've already stated that I will be talking about a specific party, and in the second sentence, I'm referring to that specific party. So it's the party now, okay?

Or... Another example. Yesterday I bought an apple. You know, just a random apple.

That apple turned out to be rotten, so I'm taking it back to the store today, okay? So first, I'm not mentioning a particular apple. I just bought an apple.

Doesn't matter which apple. Doesn't matter if it's big, doesn't matter if it's small, just an apple. But then when I'm talking that it's rotten, I already mean that apple that is in my fridge, so duh. Apple, okay?

However, if we're talking about an object that is one of a kind we always use the. The moon the Sun the Black Sea the Simpsons So we know that there's only one moon that's why we always say the moon we know that there is one Sun so say the Sun again we only know that there's just one family when we're talking about we know that we're talking about The Simpsons right this is the movie so So whenever it's something one of a kind, it's the. Uncountable nouns.

What are uncountable nouns? Porridge, oatmeal, milk, whatever you cannot count. Because when we're talking about porridge, you cannot really count all the Cs that are there. And when we're talking about milk, you cannot really count the cells. Yes, you can measure volume, but that's different.

We're talking about counting. So uncountable nouns means you cannot count them, right? So with uncountable nouns, Uncountable nouns, we don't use any articles.

It's always, I like oatmeal. Can you get me some oatmeal? Can you make some porridge for breakfast?

Use some, right? Can I have some milk? I drank milk for breakfast. The only way you would be able to count milk is By adding glasses. So can you give me a glass of milk and then you have this a okay But this a refers to glass not to milk and the second scenario when we don't use an article with nouns is When we have plural countable nouns bicycles computers cameras Bloggers.

So whenever these words appear in a sentence, we don't always use any articles. I have three computers at home. I like watching bloggers.

I love bicycles. But why articles are so confusing? Because there are always, always, always exclusions.

For example, there is a store in your house and they sell Sell specific milk and you want to highlight that you like the milk from that store because it's one of a kind. You really mean that milk and you cannot get it anywhere else. Then you can say, oh my god, I love the milk from that store because you're being specific.

And again, I just mentioned that with milk, we don't use any the, but we don't use any the or a when we don't mention specific milk. We just mention milk as food. But if we mean means some kind of milk that is only sold in a store that's one block away or in your house, say the.

Same applies to countable nouns in plural forms. If that shop also sells apples that you love, you can say, oh, I love the apples from that store. They are the best in the world.

And people realize that you mean specific apples that are only sold there and they're one of a kind. Okay, please remember that. And feel free, whenever you're watching this video, if it's confusing, feel free to stop. Feel free to open your exercise book, rewind the video and write everything down again. Because I know it's super confusing and I know even like super advanced students make mistakes in articles.

So this topic is very important. It's crucial, but I'm here to help. There's a quite similar rule for abstract nouns and when you're talking about something in general you don't need an article.

For example, information on the internet is very useful. So information is this abstract noun you don't mean any specific information you just mean that information that's available to everyone on the internet is very useful but again just to compare um when you use particular information that you receive the information that i read on wikipedia regarding youtube is super useful then you need to insert the definite article the because you mean some specific information. But when you're talking about information in general, you don't use articles at all, okay? Never use articles with proper nouns. Tuesday, Monday, New York.

You can distinguish those proper nouns by the capital letter that they start with. New York is with capital letters. Washington, D.C., Russia, London.

Tuesday, Monday, Wednesday, February, March. All of those nouns do not require an article. Okay, never use articles with the names of the countries. Dmitry makes this mistake all the time and I keep correcting him. Russia, France, Monaco, all of those countries do not require an article, but of course there are exclusions to this rule.

If a country's name consists of several words, the United Kingdom, because the refers to kingdom here, so the United Kingdom the United States of America. So whenever the name consists of several nouns, you use the. Also, no articles when you speak about languages. And remember, at the beginning of this video, I asked you to write a comment below what language you speak and if you have articles in that language. So you can say, I speak French, and there is no article.

I speak Russian, and there are no articles in Russian. so we don't have any article before the name of the language. And the last but not the least, when you're talking about meals, don't use articles.

I've already had lunch today. I've already had breakfast. Let's head out to dinner.

But again, we're just talking about non-specific meals, just stating that we had meal. But if you want to say that you are sick from the dinner you had yesterday, then you need definite article because you uh mean that specific dinner where you probably ate a sushi and you got food poisoning so uh when you mean a specific dinner it would probably be something in the past uh you use the so articles are very confusing and uh as an english language learner i think i have worked and learned about them maybe like 10 times in my life i just keep coming back to this i think Of course, it's the matter of practice, but this repetition, constant repetition of a topic that is confusing for you, I think it's really helpful for you as an English language learner. If you want another class from me on articles, please let me know in comments down below. below and I will be happy to make another video. And now let's move on to another topic that is kind of endless in English and the topic is tenses.

Today I'm going to teach you which tense to use when you see certain words in the sentence. We call them marker words. So sometimes you see them and you're like, oh, when people use this word, they would typically use this particular. tense and I'm gonna teach you those words so if you're interested continue watching before I start quick disclaimer English evolves all the time yes there are grammar rules and for some tenses especially like present perfect if it's The test taker creates a sentence for you, puts one of those marker words in that sentence.

There's like 99% chance he wants you to use present perfect because he wants to know whether you've learned those words by heart. But when you talk to a native speaker, when you're in this relaxed environment, people use these words with other tenses as well. So there is no like 100% guarantee if you see one of the words that I've mentioned, they use like that particular tense.

But if it's a test, I would say it's like 90% plus guarantee that you should use this particular tense. But I would always look at the context, okay? So you see the word and then you look at the context. We'll explain you when we use certain tenses.

So always, always, always pay attention to the context. Let's start with the simplest tense ever. Present simple.

Present simple is a tense that is used for regular actions, something that happens to you every day. every night, every month. So something that you do regularly and also for some things that are pre-scheduled like the airplane arrives at 5 p.m. The marker words for this tense usually, every day, every week, so whenever you see every that's probably present simple. Often, seldom or the synonym for it is rarely and rarely is more American.

It's for actions that don't happen too often. Always, never. Sometimes, as a rule, hardly ever, hardly ever is like very very rarely, hardly ever do I get 12 hours of sleep. for a night.

Today, on Sunday, from time to time. I go to swimming pool from time to time. The next tense that is also simple, past simple, and this is the tense that we use to describe actions in the past, and it doesn't really matter what kind of result we have right now, because that's present perfect for past simple.

Think of it as telling a story, telling a story about something that happened to you. last year in 1994. So you're just describing the series of actions or just one action or something that you were doing back then. So just think of it this way. You're describing something that happened to you, something you did a year ago, two years ago, etc.

Yesterday, the day before yesterday, last week, month, year, etc. Whenever you see last, that's really past simple. Ago is also a great marker word.

So whenever you see ago again 90% plus It's gonna be past simple a week ago a month ago a year ago the other day Which means on one of the days that have passed in? 1994 or any year in the past once Once upon a time there lived an elephant in Africa. When? And you would insert something in the past. At three o'clock yesterday or at three o'clock the day before yesterday.

That day. By the way guys, if you want these words but written down, something that you can print out, something that you can have in front of you on your desk, we have created a memo for you. Where we have all of those marker words, you also have a test which is divided by certain levels of English so you can check where you're at right now with your tenses. There is also a table that describes how to build different tenses and there's also a table with irregular verbs.

Remember we're talking about past simple right now. When we're talking in the past, a verb goes into the second form and there are regular verbs like I walked in the park, I published this video. But there are also irregular verbs like I put my phone on the table yesterday or whatever. I drove five miles an hour.

Irregular verbs are formed in a different way. It's not just putting a D in the end. It is something else.

And we have created a table for you with these verbs and also how to learn them easily. There is a small fee to download this table. It's $1 fee just to support our designers and us.

So it's me and Venia who created this table and also my team. The link is below. You're gonna have it all in front of you.

You're gonna have all the words so you can just print them out. Hang them in front of you and always have them in front of your eyes. So whenever you have questions, you can just refer to that memo. By the way, in this video, we're not going to talk about all the 12 tenses.

We're going to talk about present simple, past simple, future simple, present progressive, and present perfect. But in the table, we have more tenses. We have seven tenses in total in terms of these marker words.

Future simple. Future Simple talks about future actions and something for you to remember. Future Simple is when you're not 100% sure about...

something for example you have an appointment with your friend and he says I will come in an hour so that means he's 90% sure that he will come in an hour maybe he won't come because you can't control other people but if you have airplane that leaves at 5 p.m. You see, I'm already using present simple. So when it's something that you're 100% sure of, it's present simple.

It's like for timetables, opening, schedules and stuff. The store opens at 9 a.m. The store closes. at 9 p.m.

That's all present simple. But when we're talking about actions we're not sure about, like 90% sure, well, we are sure, 90% sure, but we're still kinda guessing. That's future simple. And the marker words are tomorrow, the day after tomorrow, next week, month, year, et cetera, in an hour, in a second, in a minute, et cetera, in the 22nd century, soon, later, someday, and someday of course meaning someday in the future.

In a day, in a week, in five years. So whenever you say in plus and according to the context you're not 100% sure. That's usually simple.

In the future, one of these days. Present progressive and in British English you would call it present continuous. It also depends on the textbook that you're using but it's pretty much the same.

America would say present progressive or present continuous. The tense that is used to describe something that is happening. Right now.

So the word, the first marker word obvious now, right now, at the moment, today, to other marker words. Look, listen. Like for example, if you're trying to pay somebody's attention, something like look, they are fine.

We need to stop them. We are paying somebody's attention to an action that's happening right now. Still, they are still fighting at this very moment. Currently, these days, this week, this month, this year constantly. I'm constantly hearing sirens when I'm recording videos in this apartment because we're very close to the center and something is constantly going on.

You see how I'm using this constantly and stuff. And the last but not the least, we're gonna talk about present perfect. And I know you mix it with past simple very often. So present perfect focuses, it's a present tense, okay? It's not a past tense because it's present perfect.

And it focuses on the result result you have right now. Come on guys. Present perfect is a present tense.

It focuses on the result that you have right now. It does not focus on the details of a past action because for that we have past simple. For results right now we have present perfect.

So for example, I have eaten. This means that you are not hungry if you're kind of translating, explaining. If you say I ate pizza yesterday for lunch.

That means you're telling a story about what happened yesterday you're not really focusing on something that you have right now this is a way for you to determine which tense to use and marker words of course like for this tense marker words that you've probably learned at school ever and ever since already yet whenever you see them on the test oh my god i think that's like 95 97 chance that the test takers want to test you whether you've learned those marker words or not ever never just already yet Recently, lately. Lately means you've started doing something recently again. I've started walking every night lately. Before, always, so far, at last.

It's the first time. It's the first time since we've known each other. Something happened.

All my life, all morning. Let's talk about English students least favorite tense, which is present perfect because it is so confusing. I was taught, at school that present perfect is a past tense, which is not, because if we look at its name, it says present perfect, which means that yes, we're talking about our actions in the past, but their result is still here with us in the present. This is why it's present perfect.

It's a present tense, and it's really important not to mix it up with a past tense. It's really important to use it in the right way. So today we're going to talk about present perfect. One of the most important things to remember about present perfect is that we don't really care when exactly something happened. For example, I say I've lost my keys.

I don't really care if I lost them yesterday. I don't really care if I lost them a week ago. I care about the result.

I've lost my keys and I can't get into my house. This is the result. And so it doesn't matter when exactly The action happened, it matters that the result is still here, it's my present, I can't get into my house. The way we form this tense is that we use either have or has. I have, you have, they have, we have, it, she, he has.

After that, we use our verb in the third form. And here, please pay attention, we have regular verbs where the third form is the same as second and is easy to use. easily formed by adding edy play played played stop stopped stopped and we have irregular verbs that you have to learn run ran run bring brought brought rise rose risen so we use the third form and please remember that some regular verbs actually change the way they're written so for example say sad sad we get rid of why in the second and third form and we add ID.

Study, studied, studied. So just pay attention to the spelling of those words. So we have has or have. We have a verb in the third form and if it's a regular verb we add ED.

If it's irregular verb we just learn the third form. And very often we have a word that tells us that we have to use present perfect. Ever, never, since, or ever.

yet. Remember what I told you, we don't really care about the exact timing of an action, so whenever you have a year ago, in 1990, in March 2015, that means that you would probably need to use past simple, because again in present perfect we don't care about the exact point at time, we don't care about the exact day or exact year, we just care about the result. So, I have never eaten pizza in my life. Okay, the result, if I try pizza, it's going to be something new for me. I've never eaten a taco.

I've been to Great Britain once. That means if I go now, it wouldn't be a new country for me. But it doesn't really matter whether I've been in Great Britain in 2015 or 2020. In this case, we would use past simple. I've been to Italy many times.

Also, when you are taking... your TOEFL test, when you're taking your IELTS test or whatever test that you're taking, please do not contract your verbs. Don't say I've been there.

Don't write I've been there. Please say and write I have been there. This is formal academic English and this is what's required from you when you're taking a formal test, when you're writing a formal essay, of course when you're chatting to your friends, to your classmates, when you're recording a video on YouTube or watching my videos, you're free to comment below.

Oh my god, I was scared by the slaps. When you're commenting on this video, you can totally contract your verbs and say I've been there, I've enjoyed this video so much, I've learned so much from this video. Marina, you're an amazing teacher.

You are being too modest. So feel free to contract below this video, but please don't use contractions when you are Taking an academic test. The negative form in this tense formed by adding not I have not done this I have not seen this before or if you want to make it shorter you can say I haven't done this before I haven't seen this before when you forming a question in present perfect this have goes into the beginning of the sentence have you ever been to the United States if you want to add wh question your wh word comes first who what when whatever what have you done today? This wh comes first and then you have your have or has and then you have your verb or how many times have you been to the UK?

Again your question comes first then you have has or have and then you have your verb. It is really important to learn the word order because when you are speaking to a native speaker and when your intonation is not right, when your word order is not right, people might not understand you at all because when you're talking to native speakers they are used to talking talking to other native speakers, and it might be a little hard for them to understand you if you have an accent or if you're mixing up word order. This is why whenever you're learning something, please make sure you're learning everything, accent, word order, pronunciation, that's really important in any language.

Okay, when do we use present perfect? We use present perfect to talk about actions that started in the past or happened in the past and still have effect on our present. I've lost my keys, I can't enter the house.

They've missed the bus, that means they will be late. I've already eaten means I'm not hungry. So we don't care about when exactly the action happened, we care about the result in present.

I've lost my money, I've lost my club, and now I've lost my guests. We all- We also use present perfect when we talk about our life experiences. I've been to the UK. I've studied in Germany. I've done this so many times before.

When you talk about your experiences, about things you've done before, you use present perfect. I've never driven before. Also, if you have an unfinished time word, for example, this year, this week, today, and want to talk about actions that have happened in the period that is still ongoing, you use present perfect.

Let me give you a couple of examples. We've already repaired our car twice this year. Oh my God.

And there might be another repair coming up. You've already done so many things today. You've accomplished so much during this day. And you.

still have time to do something else. You've already slept for five hours today, stop sleeping, come on, time to work. So whenever we have this ongoing timestamp we use present perfect. Nah, I've already seen someone cry today. Also quick difference between present perfect and past simple.

If you say I worked here for five years that means you're still working here. If you say I worked here for five years that means you're no longer working here. You see the subtle difference in using of tenses makes everything completely different and gives a completely different context to a person you're talking to.

And let me give you a quick exercise. He hungry in 1990. Which tense would you use here? Another example He hungry two times So in the first example you have past simple because it has a timestamp 1990 He visited Hungary in 1990, but in the second sentence you don't have a timestamp You just have a number of times he has visited Hungary.

So He has visited Hungary two times. Guys, if you like how I teach you tenses, I have a whole course on English language tenses. It's really detailed, really interactive with a lot of exercises.

Because once you got information about tenses... you really need to practice them. It has a lot of additional materials for you to practice, to learn, to print out and put on your desk. Only for you guys, because you're watching this video and you're watching up to the very end, you're getting an exclusive promo code to take my course with a discount.

The link and the promo code will be below. Thank you guys for watching this video up to the very end. Please subscribe to this channel if you're learning English and you need additional resources to enhance your learning journey. If you know someone who's learning English and who needs help, please share this channel.

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Transcript for:Essential English Grammar Overview

Transcript for:
Essential English Grammar Overview