SINCE vs UNTIL Advanced English Grammar Practice

hello hello welcome to today’s live

English lesson here on the speak English

with Vanessa YouTube channel I’m so glad

that you’re here to improve your English

to participate and to remember what

we’re talking about that’s the goal I

want you to be able to use it and

remember it in the future today we have

an important topic too challenging and

possibly confusing words that after

today’s lesson you’re gonna feel much

more confident about you’re gonna

understand and it’s my goal to help you

as much as possible so if you’re new

here welcome I’m Vanessa and I teach

English here on this YouTube channel and

on my website speak English with Vanessa

comm so I hope that this lesson will be

useful to you and that you’ll enjoy it a

lot thank you to everyone who’s joining

me live today from Thailand and

Venezuela Morocco Japan Egypt Spain

Poland Brazil Colombia wonderful thanks

for joining me

let’s start today’s lesson with a

question because we’re talking about two

words today I want to talk about one

word and then we’ll talk about the

second word and the reason why I don’t

want to mix them is because I want you

to feel clear and confident about one of

them before we move to the second one so

my first question is how long have you

been studying English seriously how long

have you been studying English seriously

maybe you started learning English when

you were a kid maybe you started in high

school but those were just classes you

didn’t really have a choice you weren’t

so serious about studying so I want to

know when did you start studying

seriously maybe a couple years ago maybe

yes

day maybe today Sebastian says two years

Brooke says two to three years Gabriela

says seven years two years two months 11

years three years all right so can we

turn your answers into a sentence that

uses one of our key words today I’m

going to write down

let’s choose Renata says for three years

so let’s use let’s use Renata’s answer

three years to create a sentence using

since since let’s say I and don’t forget

this is have I’ve been studying English

seriously what can we write here hmm

since since ah let’s say since 2003 said

three years so that would be what 2014

since 2014

so here we have our key word since I’ve

been studying English seriously since

2014

here’s our lovely phrase and the real

purpose of this sentence is to show

other people that it hasn’t finished you

are still studying English seriously

this is a continual thing that’s

happening right now - and maybe that’s

why you’re watching this live lesson or

you’re participating in it you’re

watching the replay maybe later because

you are still studying English seriously

and that is our key for this word since

this

means it’s continuing now it’s still

continuing Wow I think I’ve used these

these markers for so many live lessons

that now they’re almost empty Wow

that’s good news it means there’s been a

lot of live lessons so this is a

continual action we’ve got a lot of

great sentences that you all are making

here live in the chat box so I want to

take a chance to read those for just a

moment and let’s see what you’re saying

fefe says I’ve been studying English

seriously since 2008 Amina says I’ve

been sitting English seriously since

2012 great

I’ve been studying English since 2016

solo says I’ve been sitting English

seriously since 1990 congratulations I

think you’re the winner here

so for you you’ve been studying since a

certain point and this is talking about

the past it has to happen in the past

you started in the past and it’s

continuing until now let me ask you a

couple questions because I think we can

take this to the next level and the next

level is negative sentences so I’d like

to ask you two negative sentences and

later when we talk about the second word

I’m going to ask you two negative

sentences as well so I think that this

will help to challenge you and also help

you to use it in a variety of situations

so first of all let me ask the question

and let’s see how you answer and then

I’ll give you some tips my question is

when was the last time that you ate when

was the last time that you ate for me

it’s 9 a.m. right now and I haven’t

eaten breakfast yet so for me it’s been

a while

I ate the last time so how can I write

this in a negative sentence when was the

last time that you ate mmm I’m going to

make a little line here let’s separate

our sentences and I’m going to write my

answer I and I need to use a negative

word here I haven’t eaten since lovely

word oh isn’t it great since last night

because I had dinner last night but I

haven’t eaten since last night here we

have a continual action haven’t eaten

it’s still continuing and it’s

continuing now because as you can tell

I’m not eating right now I’m talking

I’ll eat later after this lesson so this

is a continual action but it’s the next

level because it’s a negative question

so I want you all to write similar

sentences and to think about when was

the last time that you ate I haven’t

eaten since last night I’m starving I

haven’t eaten since Monday Oh No

please go eat a lot of you are writing

great sentences here too uh as soon as I

haven’t eaten chocolate since last week

Oh for you you’re missing chocolate I

haven’t eaten since 7:00 a.m. beautiful

sentence I haven’t eaten since 7:00 a.m.

maybe that was breakfast for you and now

it’s the afternoon or now it’s the

evening so maybe you’re hungry I haven’t

eaten since 8 p.m. for me it’s 2 p.m.

and I haven’t eaten since breakfast so

you’re pretty hungry you’re ready to eat

lunch

there’s a continual thing that’s

happening and it’s continuing now you’re

still not eating yet hopefully soon if

you’re hungry let me ask you a second

question this is a similar sentence

structure so I hope that it will be

comfortable to you my question is when

was the last time that you traveled

abroad when was the last time that you

traveled abroad and I challenge you to

try to write a similar negative negative

sentence using since when was the last

time that you traveled abroad hmm for me

last year I went to Europe it was a

wonderful trip beautiful place lots of

great memories but I could say I haven’t

traveled abroad since we’ve got our

keyword I haven’t travelled abroad since

last year so it has been one year I

think almost exactly one year I think in

June of 2016 I went to Germany and

France and Switzerland and Italy and

kind of Austria so for me I haven’t

traveled abroad since last year here’s

our wonderful phrase and it’s still

continuing now because I’m not abroad

right now I’m in the u.s. so this action

even though it’s negative it’s still

continuing now we’ve got some lovely

sentences live here I haven’t traveled

abroad since last month

excellent I haven’t traveled abroad

since February I haven’t traveled abroad

since 2016

haven’t traveled abroad since I was born

which means I have never traveled abroad

hopefully someday you get the

opportunity to travel abroad alright are

you ready to challenge your mind with

the second word we’ve talked about since

this continual action going until now

but what about the next word if you saw

the title of today’s lesson you probably

know what it is but our word is until

until so I’d like to ask you a question

this is an introduction question to help

you think about this concept my question

is how old were you when you finished

school how old were you when you

finished school

maybe you finished high school when you

were 17 or maybe you went to college

university master’s degrees so you

finished when you were 25 when you were

35 how old were you when you finished

school in the US we use the word school

to talk about any kind of education in a

classroom so it’s not just high school

or elementary school how old were you

Salo says I was 23 I was 23 let’s take

this answer 23 and it’s pretty similar

to me I think I finished when I was 21

21 so we have similar answers let’s make

a sentence using until with 23 we’re

going to make this a positive sentence

and then we’ll talk about negative

sentences later sao paulo has some

continual action with until i went

to school until I was 23 or we could say

23 years old here we have our keyword

this is our second keyword today what do

you think it means in this situation

because in the in the live chat box

Salo told us that he went to school he

finished school when he was 23 so is

this continuing now he went to school

probably for a long time so it was

continuing but our key difference here

this was continuing but not not now it’s

finished now so we can imagine it used

to be continuing and now the action has

stopped the action has finished so

you’re not in school anymore that’s why

we’re using until what if you are still

in school maybe it’s continuing now

maybe you are doing your master’s degree

in engineering you’re doing your

master’s degree in engineering you could

say oh I have been in school since 1984

my degree is taking so long

it means that it’s continuing now you’re

doing it at the moment but I imagine for

most of you you’re probably not a

student right now so this is something

that was continuing but now it has

stopped so let’s make sure that we

remember this difference and use it in

my next couple questions because that is

a huge difference it has stopped now so

let me ask

you a negative question we’re going to

try to use this in the next level and if

you have any questions or any issues

don’t worry

I’ll try my best to give you some

feedback and to answer them clearly are

you ready for my first question using

until until I want to know when was the

first time that you got a smartphone

when was the first time that you got a

smartphone maybe you don’t have a

smartphone now but let’s imagine you

have a smartphone when was the first

time that you got a smartphone so we’re

going to be writing we already talked

about positive sentences we’re going to

be taking it to the next level

and talk about negative sentences

something that was continuing but it’s

not continuing now hmm when did you get

a smartphone for me I think it was 2014

maybe 2014 so what can I say using until

and making it negative whoo something

happened continual and then it stopped

what stopped when I had when I got my

first smartphone well not having a

smartphone I didn’t have a smartphone

from my whole life until 2014

so let’s make that sentence here I

didn’t have a smartphone until 2014 or

you could say until last year until

yesterday until so we have a continual

action that stopped in 2014 so now I

have a smartphone this is not true for

me now I don’t I didn’t have a

smartphone so

at the moment I have a smartphone this

action is not continuing at the moment

it is not now so I need to use the word

until to talk about that breaking point

the stopping point until 2014

something changed in 2014 and I got a

smartphone in fact in 2012 and 2013 dan

and I shared a flip phone for two years

and there was no problem

and then in 2014 I believe we decided to

get one smartphone when we were living

in Korea and we shared it for a year and

it was great it’s amazing when you try

new technologies or something new that

really brings a lot of information into

your life you always wonder how did I

live without this but I definitely lived

without it until 2014 with no problems

so a lot of you are writing great

sentences here I want to take a chance

to read your sentences Victor says I

didn’t have a smartphone until 2012

great May says I didn’t have a

smartphone until I was fifteen years old

this is a great way to change this final

part you’re making it a little more

complex until I was 15 years old

Adalberto says I didn’t have a

smartphone until I was 23 years old

Oh Yujin says I didn’t have a smartphone

until my brother gave me one beautiful

so here we are talking about the moment

that it changed until my brother gave me

one until I was 15 until 2014

something stopped let me ask you my

second question my second negative

question you’re doing great

making these complex because the

negative sentences can be a little more

challenging my second question is when

was the first

time that you realized studying English

online was a good option I think a lot

of us grew up without the internet so

this is a completely new concept to

learn online so when was the first time

here we’re using our similar idea when

was the first time that you realized oh

I can learn English on YouTube I can

learn English on the Internet this is

great podcast music videos live lessons

when was the first time so again we need

to make a negative sentence whoo

a good challenge making a negative

sentence you might say I didn’t realize

I’ll just say that we’re condensing that

means learning English online is a good

option I didn’t realize that until until

let’s see Oh Gabriela says until this

year excellent I’ll write that until

this year so something big changed this

year for you until this year all of my

life I didn’t realize I didn’t realize

it was continuing I didn’t realize boom

until this year something changed

something changed this year and now I

know that learning English online is a

good option it’s another way to immerse

yourself in English let me take a look

at some of your life sentences here oh

maybe we could say Sala says I didn’t

realize that until last year Tiago says

I didn’t realize that I could study

English online until two years ago I

didn’t realize that until last year

great

better late than never how cool endure

says I didn’t realize that I could learn

English online until my teacher told me

so your teacher introduced you to

learning online great I didn’t realize

that until I got bad grades at school oh

so maybe your negative experience at

school forced you to try another option

I didn’t realize that until I found your

YouTube channel oh great

I’m so glad that this is useful to you

so for your whole life you didn’t

realize you could learn English online

until you clicked speak English with

Vanessa and then you realized ah I can

learn English online until that moment

alright we’ve talked about a lot of

things today you’ve done such a great

such a great job using both of these

words using something that’s continuing

until now and something that was

continuing but now it’s not anymore so

to finish our lesson we’re gonna say one

kind of long sentence altogether and I

hope that it will be useful for you and

enjoyable because you can imagine

friends from all over the world in Italy

Vietnam Colombia Russia China wherever

you are you can imagine other friends

saying the same thing hopefully this

will connect us because that’s the great

thing about English in language in

general that when you can speak the same

language as someone else you’re

connecting with them in a real way so

let’s imagine friends all around the

world saying the sentence together it’s

kind of like a mini dictation practice

so this means that I’m gonna say it I’m

not going to write it and I want you to

write it in the comments write it in the

chat box write it on your arm write it

on the wall if you want to make your

family angry

but write this down so that you can see

if your ears are hearing it correctly

we’re going to combine both of these

words are you ready the sentence is kind

of long I already wrote it down because

I wanted to create something creative

are you ready let’s say since I was

young I’ve wanted to learn English but I

didn’t know it was possible until today

maybe for you you realized it was

possible a couple years ago but let’s

just say this together since I was young

I’ve wanted to learn English but I

didn’t know it was possible until today

so here in the sentence we have a

continual action you’re still wanting to

learn English you’re still wanting to

improve your English since I was young

I’ve wanted to learn English

still today but I didn’t know it was

possible hmm we have our breaking time

until today so today is when you

realized it’s possible I can’t learn

English I can understand Vanessa I can

understand these questions I can make

sentences accurately great I hope that

your mind feels clear and comfortable so

let’s say this sentence slowly together

I want you to imitate my pronunciation

and then we’ll say it quickly together

are you ready since I was young I’ve

wanted to learn English but I didn’t

know it was possible until today we’ve

got some great natural pronunciation

especially words like one mid that tea

is cut out I wanted to learn English so

make sure that you’re following

carefully and slowly to improve your

pronunciation and now let’s say it

quickly since I was young I’ve

then to learn English but I didn’t know

it was possible until today since I was

young I wanted to learn English but I

didn’t know it was possible until today

I hope that that’s true for you and

maybe it was last month or last year but

I hope that now you feel like it’s more

possible to learn English that’s my goal

to help you as much as I can thank you

so much for joining me today for this

lively s’en if you think no Vanessa

don’t go well I have good news there are

a lot of English lessons on my youtube

channel maybe you didn’t know that until

today well you can go to my YouTube

channel and watch probably hours and

hours and hours of English lessons if

you would like so you can do that and if

you would like to be even more immersed

in English I recommend reading my free

ebook 5 steps to becoming a confident

English speaker in this free ebook that

you can download print it put it under

your pillow put it on your wall cook it

in a soup if you’re a little crazy just

anything to help you remember and

immerse yourself in English this free

ebook will help you to know what’s the

next step for you because there’s a lot

of options the Internet is a great place

to learn but sometimes it can be

overwhelming so I hope that for you this

ebook will help to guide you and I’ll

also send you two free email lessons

every week to help you reach the next

level and feel more comfortable and

confident I hope that these will be

useful to you and thanks so much for

joining me today I appreciate your time

and energy and I’ll see you again the

next time bye everyone see you later