How to use for since and ago in English present perfect tense

and in this week’s live lesson we are

going to talk about how to use for since

and ago i’m going to talk about a few

details of these words and i’m also

going to talk about the grammar points

that we typically use these words in so

i hope that

beginners can get some new information

of course and i also hope i’ve chosen

some information

that will help

kind of deepen your knowledge of how to

use these words so should be a good one

for everyone so as you join please

please please make sure to hit the like

button and of course share this video as

well it will help other people to find

today’s lesson that would be super super

cool while we wait for people to join us

live as always a few quick announcements

the first announcement is about this

banner at the bottom of the screen where

you can find if you click the link below

the video on youtube or above the video

on facebook you will find free

downloadable pdfs so you can practice uh

vocabulary and phrases

pick up some new things uh

choose whatever you like this one it

says it’s about romance and love but

on the back you will find compliments

you can use so you can find all of these

from the link below or above the video

there are a bunch of new ones too so

check it out if you haven’t looked

recently yeah you can find uh some new

stuff there okay that’s announcement

number one announcement number two is if

you have questions for me if you have

questions you want to ask me about

grammar vocabulary culture other small

points whatever

you can send those questions to me for

our question and answer series this is a

very old screenshot

called ask alicia so

the link for that is at

englishclass101.com

ask hyphen alicia there is also a link

in the youtube description too you can

check that out and if you want to follow

me on social media you can find links

for that in the youtube description you

can just search for this username

okay that’s all for our announcements i

think everything is rolling facebook i

see you hi facebook pesh and yusef and

suzama hello and hi from someone with a

thai name can’t read it sorry hi raquel

and stella welcome everybody and on

youtube hi everyone uh random shares

from pakistan hi noeli who bear hello

baldwin jose farushi i feel like there

are many new names today that’s super

cool welcome everybody okay let’s look

at today’s lesson topic uh

which is

how to use or since and ago also if

you’re just joining please make sure to

like and share this video it helps other

people find the lesson i’m going to do

that and then i’m going to share the

video but um

cool done okay so

uh let’s get into today’s topic then i’m

going to show you today’s lesson boards

okay so here is what we are going to

look at today today we’re going to look

at four since and ago so i chose some

key

uses uh so for for instance there are

some other uses but i wanted to focus on

these and we’ll talk about a go

last so

in today’s lesson

in today’s lesson if you want to try to

make an example sentence with the focus

point in that moment go for it i will

try to check your sentences live in the

chat

if you are joining live so let’s get

started let’s start with four let’s talk

about how to use four i chose three uses

for today’s lesson

so let’s begin with this first one using

four to show

purpose to show purpose

so for example

i need this for my homework right so i

need some object

for the purpose of like in order to

four is used before

the noun here so this pattern uses four

plus

a noun phrase noun renowned phrase in

this case for my homework i need this

for my homework or i need this for my

job or i need this for my hobby yeah we

show purpose with four

another example

you should try this for lunch

you should try this for lunch it’s like

saying you should try this in order to

have lunch this should be your lunch for

the day it’s like saying this is the

purpose your lunch is the purpose here

so you should try this for lunch okay

and one more

we bought some artwork for our house we

bought some artwork for our house

so sometimes we use this for it’s

showing like the purpose of something

like when we’re giving gifts to people

or in this case we’re talking about

receiving something you can kind of

think of it as like that’s the the

person or in this case the house is the

purpose yeah so we bought this like for

that person like in order to make that

thing or person better or happy is a

different way you can think about this

okay some examples are coming in awesome

cesar says you need that bed for your

new house very nice okay um cottonwood

says i need your help completing no i

need your help

for completing this product i need your

help we would say to complete to

complete uh this project uh

i need it for the project okay

good uh all right so that’s all i see

for now so

we can use for to show purpose to show

purpose okay so this is our first use of

four the second use is the one i want to

review today this use of four is used to

it expresses a length of time and we use

this in present perfect tense sentences

this is the structure we use here so we

use four

plus

length of time here so let’s look at

some examples for this one

i’ve lived here for five years

i’ve lived here for five years so in

this sentence we see four

plus our length of time so four plus

length of time

key point here

make sure

you don’t forget this s make sure your

length of time is plural in these kinds

of cases years minutes months weeks

i often see people forget this s right

here

for five years five years okay cool

also uh the grammar oh

the grammar here i’ve lived here so this

is i have yeah a present perfect

structure i have lived here for

five years

okay

all right next example here is we’ve

been talking for an hour

we’ve been talking for an hour

so in this sentence you’ll notice

there’s no s at the end because

this time period this length of time

rather this is singular one hour only so

no s at the end so make sure this s

is when it is plural you have to use

that s at the end okay again this is a

present perfect structure we have been

talking

we have been talking for one hour

okay finally

he’s been stressed out for weeks

he’s been stressed out for weeks so

present perfect structure he has

been stressed out four weeks four weeks

so weeks just means many weeks we don’t

know four weeks five weeks six weeks we

don’t know so we just expressed this

with weeks he’s been stressed out for

weeks so

to express this length of time we use

for

again we use this in present perfect

structures okay

um some examples are coming in i’ve been

here for a good five minutes as random

shares yasir says i am sick for two

weeks so make sure you use this pattern

i have been sick for two weeks i have

been sick for two weeks we used this

grammar point to show

something that started in the past or

continues

he has learned here for two years nor on

facebook let’s use the verb study yeah

he has studied here for two years

doli says can i say it’s me or it’s i

generally we say it’s me in some kind of

funny or old-fashioned situations we say

it is i

okay

other questions uh hatis daphne i hope i

said your name right says i have been

living in the united states for five

years

so the four is perfect there nice job

karina says i’ve been reading a new book

for a week good

uh yamileth says i have been living in

the united states for three months great

uh juan carlos says i have been watching

your lessons for nine months cool okay

jayan says i’ve been looking for you for

hours good okay

a couple people are writing um about uh

learning like i have uh learned this for

such and such time we use learn the verb

learn

typically when we finish

something we finish

our studies of something so instead use

the verb study so use learn when you

finish it yeah like i learned a new dish

i learned how to cook a new dish it’s

finished yeah or i learned a new skill

last summer it’s finished

because you’re still studying english in

this case use the verb study yeah

okay cool

let’s go to the last point then for to

express value so we see this use of four

in shopping and in trading situations

yeah so

examples

you can get 12 cookies

for five dollars today you can get 12

cookies for five dollars today so this

four

shows the cost of the thing so in this

pattern we use four plus a noun phrase

that expresses it tells us the value or

it tells us the cost of something yeah

so in this case

five dollars is the value of 12 cookies

today

so we use this to express this value you

can get 12 cookies for five dollars

today

pretty good cookies okay

let’s go to the next example sentence

next we bought three new computers for

one thousand dollars we bought three new

computers for

one thousand dollars so again four comes

before

the cost

the amount the value the worth of

these three new computers yeah

one more

i’ll trade this sweater for that scarf

so this one is a trade yeah not buying

something so this sweater for that scarf

that scarf is the noun phrase the value

yeah so this is an offer

sentence right i’ll trade this sweater

for that scarf we use for

to show

our value statement our value item

okay

i’m looking for your examples now

will this video be recorded yes every

week we record this live video you can

watch it again later

i hope i heard your name right said i

could get one kilogram of potatoes

for ten dollars good so make sure you

use that plural form of your noun so one

kilo of potatoes

yeah don’t forget them okay carla says

she’s bought the car for fifteen

thousand dollars okay maybe

depending on your sentence she bought

not she’s bought

but she bought the car for fifteen

thousand dollars okay

all right i’m looking for other value

statements karina says i’ll give you one

dollar for that cookie very nice very

nice okay good good good good so we can

use four to talk about purpose

to talk about the length of time with

present perfect

and to talk about the value of something

there are some other uses some other

ways to use four but i didn’t include

them in this lesson maybe in the future

this is our topic for today

okay so that’s part one let’s take a

short break

then we’ll go to talking about since in

part two

uh okay i don’t see other questions yet

john nasa sierra leo i hope i said your

name right on facebook said i bought a

new car for almost two weeks so we can’t

use a time period here in this one we

are expressing value yeah you could say

maybe i bought a new car

two weeks ago

to talk about when you bought the car so

that sentence is mixing two things yeah

when did you buy the car and the cost of

the car two different ideas maybe make

two different sentences yeah or i bought

the car two weeks ago for two thousand

dollars if you want to make one sentence

okay

let’s take a break if you missed it

there are free pdf sheets for you to

download below the video if you’re

watching on youtube or above the video

if you’re watching on facebook check it

out there’s a link you can find

a bunch let’s see what should i choose

here’s one emergency words so these are

vocabulary phrases conversation practice

cheat sheets you can find a list of

useful phrases the sweats for

emergencies of course you can find these

in the youtube description or above the

facebook facebook video too these are

all free you just need to put your name

and your email address into the

english class 101.com website and you

can download all of these there are a

lot our team is adding new ones all the

time so check it out if you haven’t

checked recently

go look maybe you’ll find something new

there uh

so i hope that that is helpful for you

oh welcome we got a new member on uh

youtube hi there i’m thiago hello

welcome okay so uh with that said let’s

get to part two uh time is going quickly

if you’re just joining please don’t

forget to hit the like button and share

this video so that others can find

today’s lesson all right

let’s go to the next one how to use

since since so in this uh section i want

to talk about uh three uses of synths

again there are some others but i want

to focus on these

for today so again you can send an

example sentence and i will try to check

live okay

first since

so we can use since to mark the start of

an action or a condition so we use this

with present perfect tense again just as

we practiced with four also yeah okay

so for example

i’ve lived here since

i’ve lived here since 2015. so in this

pattern

we mark the start that’s the key here

the start point with four we talked

about the length of time yeah

with since we mark the start point of

the action okay

i’ve lived here since 2015. again this

is a present perfect structure i’ve

lived here since 2015.

okay another example we’ve been working

since

7 a.m

we’ve been working since 7 00 am so 7 am

7 in the morning marks the start

of the action yeah this is the start for

this action

we’ve been working so this is a

continuing action starting at seven a.m

and continuing we cannot use four here

we’ve been working four seven a.m is

incorrect cannot use it we’ve been

working since seven a.m

okay one more he’s been stressed out

since he got promoted

he’s been stressed out since he got

promoted so here

he got promoted i know this is not a

year or a time right but this marks

a past point in time yeah

since he got promoted so the day he got

promoted

that’s the start point for

this situation he’s been stressed out

he’s been stressed out so the day he got

promoted

is the start point for this stressed

condition we express that here so we use

since to mark the start of an action or

the start of a condition

all right other questions

i’ve been waiting here since 5 pm says

sassin do covey very nice okay

others uh my cesar says my boss has been

working since six am good yeah my boss

yeah my boss has been working yeah do

you have any lessons about the use of

the comma in english lady yes i have

some on the

english class 101 channel and i have

some on my channel as well check that

out you can just do a quick search yeah

um i have been there since morning says

mercy okay cool this looks good malva

says i’ve been teaching mathematics

since two months ago good nice one

other ones

muhammad saeed afridi says i have been

watching this lesson for 10 minutes very

close 10 minutes

10 minutes don’t forget that s to make

it plural

okay all right let’s go to use number

two of synths so we use this i kind of

hinted at it here we use this another

way to understand this use of since

reference to past time reference to past

time what does that mean that means

in a conversation

we express we share some past action

then we want to mention that past action

again

so what does this look like let’s look

at some examples what do i mean

for example

i met my roommate

when

we were in elementary school

i met my roommate when we were in

elementary school

ben

we’ve been friends

since

or we’ve been friends since then

so this

since

refers to

we go back

to the previous sentence

right i met my roommate when we were in

elementary school so this is the

past point in time

elementary school yeah we’ve been

friends since we’ve been friends since

then you might hear both of these it’s

up to the speaker yeah you can choose

what you prefer since or since then

so i met my roommate when we were in

elementary school we’ve been friends

since then means starting at elementary

school until now

we have been friends

we can use since to do this very very

efficiently yeah

okay

i hope i said your name right on

facebook says i have been watching your

channel since last month nice since last

month okay

uh all right other ones

oh my gosh i don’t see examples i see

lots of other topics okay let’s go to

the next one uh they had an argument

last week they haven’t spoken since

they had an argument last week they

haven’t spoken since so what happened

here’s

our first sentence they had an argument

last week so we have this condition last

week then they haven’t spoken

since

so since refers to a past point right

here’s our past point

so they had an argument last week

starting at that point they have not

spoken

so we use

since to do this

we typically use this at the end of

sentences we don’t say since they

haven’t spoken as much we tend to use it

at the end of sentences more

all right

last one for this section

he was in a accident when he was young

he’s been quiet ever since

he was in a terrible accident when he

was young he’s been quiet ever since

okay so what is this ever sorry my r is

not so clear e v e r that’s an r

he’s been quiet ever since so ever since

let me get my marker

ever since

where is it

is like a stronger more kind of

emotionally powerful

way to say since he’s been quiet ever

since so again we have this past point

the terrible accident when he was young

yeah so this is our past point and this

is the condition

that continued since that time he’s been

quiet since the accident is another way

to say that

so ever since

is like the strong version the more

powerful version of since then so if you

want to express kind of more impact with

since you can use ever since so this is

a very serious situation right so a

terrible accident happened that’s very

serious

we expressed that kind of powerful

impactful

feeling with ever since

okay

all right

okay

i think we should continue to the next

one then time’s going quickly the last

one just two examples we can use since

in the same way as because because we

show a reason with because right we can

use since to do this too

let’s look at two examples first one

we can’t start the project this year

since we have no money

we can’t start the project this year

since we have no money this sense

right here shows

the reason for something we can’t start

the project this year because we have no

money is another way to express this

sentence so what’s the difference

between since and because we tend to use

because more in everyday speech in

everyday conversation and everyday

writing

since tends to sound a little bit more

polite a little bit more formal we can’t

start the project this year since we

have no money

one more example of this

i decided to take a taxi since i was

running late

i decided to take a taxi since i was

running late so here is our sense

we can replace this with because and it

makes sense i decided to take a taxi

because i was running late

so if you’re not sure which use of sense

is it i don’t know you can use because

as a test so replace

since with because

if you have this reason here and because

makes sense

you have this use of sins so this is one

way to test it

okay just a quick short tip

okay i’m looking for your questions

can we use synths between two actions

uh can you give me an example i’m not

quite sure um what you mean by that one

uh yeah hats i think i just answered

which is formal because or since since

tends to sound a little bit more formal

okay

running late oh what does running late

mean so i decided to take a taxi since i

was

running late to run late to run late

means in your activities for the day in

your daily schedule you are late we use

this

to mean not to mean physically running

we don’t mean running but rather my

schedule

is delayed today so we say i’m running

late to mean i am delayed today like my

schedule everything is late in my

schedule i’m running late we use this a

lot this is a really great one okay

all right

[Music]

okay

e cain i hope i said your name right e

kai says he was expelled from school

since he broke the school rules very

nice very nice okay

okay no hora says he couldn’t go since

he couldn’t get the money okay cool very

nice very nice all right let’s go to the

last part then because i am late i’m

running late as always i liked i liked

talking about all the details of these

let’s talk about the last point the last

point is very short if you’re tired so a

go a go let’s talk about using a go

a go is used

to refer to a past point in time

but key point we use a go a lot with

simple past sentences so in today’s

lesson we talked about for and since

with present perfect sentences for

example i have lived here for five years

and i’ve lived here since 2015 right so

those are present perfect sentences

we use a go with simple past sentences

okay for example we moved here a year

ago we moved here a year ago or one year

ago also okay two years so we moved here

a year ago this ago

means this

period of time

before it’s like saying this this period

of time

was the point

at which

this happened yeah so it’s like you go

back

this amount of time

okay we moved here one year ago or we

moved here a year ago we go back that

that amount of time that length of time

that’s the point

for this action we moved here a year ago

so we cannot say we moved here since a

year no or we moved here for a year that

doesn’t make sense either

we moved here a year ago this sentence

uses simple past tense

okay let’s look at another one so this

is two sentences

so remember our crazy vacation remember

our crazy vacation

that was such a long time ago

this

such a long time ago or a long time ago

i wanted to introduce

in this lesson excuse me

so such a long time ago means that was

very very far in the past we use this

expression a lot we don’t say that was

far in the past we do not say that we

say this that was such a long time ago

or that was a long time ago or that was

a really long time ago so use this long

time ago

you will probably

see this at the beginning of stories too

in movies and books and so on a long

time ago okay um all right uh

hijlatif

wrote we moved here since last year so i

just mentioned this we cannot use that

sentence we moved here a year ago we

moved here a year ago we can say uh

we’ve lived here

since last year we cannot use since in

this sentence we moved here since

last year

we cannot say that

okay uh let’s go to the last uh the last

example

she arrived at the office about

three hours ago she arrived at the

office about three hours ago so three

hours ago we go back three hours that’s

the time she arrived so we mark the

point of the action here she arrived at

the office about three hours ago

okay some examples are coming uh nahara

says i moved here seven years ago

perfect good good good um

other ones

i graduate uh on hua lim i hope i said

your name right oh where’d you come and

i graduated with a bachelor’s degree i i

graduated with like like holding a

bachelor’s degree 26 years ago yeah then

it’s perfect okay others uh karina says

they got married three years ago

el turco says buy yourself a board woman

i don’t have space in my house for one

i’m broadcasting from my house okay

um you went to canada two years ago says

cesar very nice okay good nice ones

everybody oh cole pang says my birthday

was 10 months ago okay

um gelit i moved here a year ago is that

correct yes

moved here a year ago you just changed

the subject right yeah so it’s fine okay

let’s go to the last last last part a go

and sense is the length of time with a

present perfect structure so i want to

include this some guides say this

grammar is not standard

but many native speakers use this

pattern so i want to introduce it so

this is using since and a go together

for lengths of time

we use this with a present perfect

sentence structure

for example we’ve been working since

six hours ago

we’ve been working since

six hours ago

here we have since

plus our length of time plus a go

these two are together we cannot say

we’ve been working since six hours no we

cannot say we’ve been working six hours

ago we have to have both

here so again some guides say this

grammar is not standard but some native

speakers do use this kind of pattern

another example

they’ve been waiting

since

30 minutes ago

they’ve been waiting since 30 minutes

ago

so we can use the same uh pattern as

this one here so we go 30 minutes back

in time that’s the start point

for this

they’ve been waiting since 30 minutes

ago

this one communicates a continuing

action yeah

okay

uh l says so is it the same as saying

four yeah so we could say we’ve been

working for six hours yes so this

pattern is the same as with using four i

think i think four is better because

it’s shorter it’s more efficient but

sometimes we use this like maybe

sometimes native speakers start saying

since and then they finish it

in this pattern so just it’s up to the

person the person the speaker decides in

the moment which pattern to use

okay

uh vibhavi anuba says i’ve been playing

violin since three years ago very nice

very nice

[Music]

i hope i said that right says i’ve been

watching this live since half an hour

ago very cool

lots of people are writing i’ve been

watching since 30 minutes ago great

great job everybody okay lots of people

are writing that everybody great job i

have been watching this since 20 minutes

ago awesome yeah i have to finish i’m

late so lastly um

the what’s the last one i’ve been

exercising since three months ago is my

last one i think that one sounds good

for everyone

okay last final points just a reminder

for and since we commonly use for and

since with present perfect tense as we

practiced here and we use since and ago

a lot with simple past tense so just a

couple very short guys

phew that was a lot okay i am very late

i am running late so let’s finish up

today’s lesson that was super great

thank you for all of your great uh

example sentences and questions i’ll

show you the lesson boards now so you

can take a picture take a screenshot no

all right so we talked about how to use

for and since and ago that was a lot of

information i know but i hope that it

helps you

as you create especially

past or sorry present uh present perfect

sentences yeah cool all right so that’s

it for today uh next week i’ll be back

of course next week’s lesson information

is here next week

next week’s lesson uh october 13th

wednesday october 13th at 10 p.m eastern

standard time that is new york city time

if you don’t know your local time please

google it or set a reminder on youtube

or on facebook or if you follow me on

instagram you can find a link i always

post a link and a topic reminder in my

story so follow me there for that update

next week i’m going to talk about how to

use at in and on a preposition lesson

yeah so please join me for that one it

should be super good all right so that’s

it for this week thanks very much for

joining thank you very much for liking

and sharing the video that was great we

had lots of people join us also don’t

forget

to get your free stuff there’s a lot of

free stuff from the link below the video

on youtube or above the video on

facebook okay so check it out um check

out everything that is it for me for

this week i hope you have a great day

have a great week and i will see you

again next time bye