How to Talk About Your Current WorkProjects in English

and today we are going to talk about

how to talk about your current work your

current projects

and your current studies so uh today’s

focus grammar point

will be present progressive and we’re

also going to talk about

present perfect with progressive i know

that these are very very common

questions

uh that many learners have sorry many

learners have these questions

so we’re going to cover them today okay

great so as you join live please make

sure to send a message

in the chat so i can say hi to you and

of course please make sure to like and

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can find today’s topics while we wait

of course a couple of announcements as

always first

thing first uh this banner at the bottom

of the screen

there’s free stuff for you uh free

vocabulary

pdfs that you can download from the link

below the video if you’re watching on

youtube or above the video if you are

watching

on facebook today’s topic is focused on

work and studies

so a couple of maybe recommended

vocabulary sheets to download this one

is the business english one

uh there’s like office vocabulary here

yes but

on the back there’s like a list of job

titles

and some meeting use phrases so this one

might be a nice one to download

for today there are also some study uh

related school related

uh pdfs that i will show you later got a

bunch of course if you don’t want to

practice with those there are many

different topics here’s one about

pets and here’s one about sports so

there’s all kinds of different things to

check

out so have a look at that if you have

not

before announcement number two is of

course if you have questions for me

if you have questions for me you can

send them to me for this weekly series

the ask alicia series uh on the english

class 101

youtube channel so you can send me your

questions i will definitely

read your question i will maybe choose

it to include in the series

i get a lot of questions and a lot of

questions are the same

too so that’s why i might not choose

yours but

i try to pick questions that are helpful

for everybody

uh so if you have questions for this

series

please send them to me at

englishclass101.com

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italia somayah lara juan uh

juan semicolon and colin today nope i’m

not talking about punctuation today

today is a different topic

uh kylos welcome everybody good it’s

uh connected everywhere fantastic so

let’s go to today’s lesson flow today’s

lesson flow

is as follows today’s lesson boards look

like this

oh it’s very sunny today it’s hard for

me to see my screen okay

here we go this is today’s uh

information

first we are going to talk about how to

talk about your

current work your current project your

current studies

with present progressive second we’re

going to practice

present perfect progressive and what the

difference is

between these two last we’re going to

talk about some common question patterns

you can use

and that you will also hear you should

know how to respond to these questions

with that let’s begin uh let’s begin

with

present progressive today present

progressive today

so a review a very quick review

i’m not going to talk in detail about

uh these grammar points i’m going to

talk about

how we use these grammar points in these

specific

situations so if you have a question

about this situation

or if you have a question about your

example sentence send it in the chat

i will try to check live but there are

many questions on two different streams

thanks for your understanding hello

everybody who’s joining okay

let’s start present progressive a quick

reminder

we use present progressive that verb in

the ing

form in this pattern to talk about

temporary actions

so that means something we are doing now

let’s review how we make present

progressive

we need to consider our subject in these

cases yeah so i

could be the subject or he she or it

or you we or they so we need to think

about our subject

for today’s practice we’re going to

focus a lot on i i

because we want to talk about our

current work or our current studies

so when the subject is i

our verb following is am i am

and to make it negative we place not

here

don’t have to of course i am verb

in the ing form so for example i

am teaching english i am teaching

english so this is a temporary situation

happening

now i am teaching english if the subject

changes the subject is you or we or they

we change the verb here to r you

are verb in for example

you are studying a language you are

studying a language this is something

true now you are studying a language

okay

everybody good so far i hope in this

case i think maybe many of you are

studying

english okay i’m trying to check your

questions it’s very sunny today

okay let’s continue in this lesson today

i want to

of course talk about these grammar

points i also want to share

some key tips some key issues i’ve

noticed

with learners with these topics

this is one big point for today a

preposition point

when you want to talk about your work

we use this expression right here i have

it in the progressive form

to work on something in this case to

work

on a new project when you want to

express your current

project the current um like the current

thing

you are doing you can use work on

in the progressive form like this i am

working

on a new project i circled

on here because many learners forget

to include on i am working a new project

is incorrect you have to include this

on here i am working on

a new project i am working on a new

project

so for everybody watching live you can

send me a comment what are you working

on or what are you studying i will check

your answers later

you have some time to think okay let’s

change the subject then if you want to

talk

about a collaboration so something you

and another person are doing together

that’s a collaboration

yeah so my friend and i

are setting up a company

my friend and i are so my friend and i

this means we we right two people

in this case my friend and i are setting

up here’s my progressive form yeah so

again

preposition point set is different from

set

up so to set up means like to

create something new for the first time

like to set up furniture for example

or to set up for an event so my friend

and i are setting up a company so we’re

creating a company

you could use that word too if you want

so please please please

don’t forget these prepositions they are

very very important

to your sentence okay uh on youtube

aj gabriel says can we say i am working

a new job it depends on the type of work

when we say i’m working on a new job

it sounds at least to an american

english speaker

that sounds like a construction related

work or construction

construction related project when we say

i’m working on

on a new job using on that preposition

there

before job it sounds like a construction

project why that’s just the way it is

unfortunately

if you want to express that you started

in a new company

or a new position use the preposition at

i am working at a new job

or i am working in a new company

i hope that that helps you okay

i’m looking for your examples um my

teacher

sarah tula says my teacher teaching now

it’s right

no my teacher is is teaching now my

teacher

is teaching now do not forget these

helping verbs

moira on facebook says i’m working on

my report so no uh no article there i’m

working on

my report okay continue

next one he is building a website

he is building a website this is another

verb

i thought would be very helpful for

today’s topic

building it means making yes but

building has this feeling of like

putting pieces together it sounds a

little bit more

complex than just making

he is building a website

my subject is he so my helping verb

is i have to use is here not he am or he

are he is building a website

okay um sai says i am working on a new

company perfect great

great silva daniel says i’m working on a

new project about

applications good good good um

let’s see i am watching an excellent

video lesson

if you want to use your this article do

i have an example you are studying

a language don’t forget an an

if your following word starts with a

vowel sound

and something don’t forget that article

rule uh

he is designing a website says armando

great

uh abdallah hashem says how can i talk

about my previous work in an interview i

have some lessons about that on the

channel

if you have a question about that search

how to talk about your past

work or just search past work on the

youtube channel i have some lessons

about that

okay let’s go on uh one more she is

learning how to play a musical

instrument

she is learning how to play a musical

instrument

i wanted to include this pattern right

here she is learning

and then i have this this embedded part

how to play a musical instrument so not

she is learning a musical instrument you

might hear that

we often use patterns like this she is

learning how to

do something so you can use this pattern

how to

change this verb to match the needs of

your sentence

also a small point well not a small

point big point study versus learn

study versus learn in this case we

cannot say

she is studying how to play a new

instrument

when we talk about something um

something we do with our hands like an

activity

like playing a musical instrument or

using a computer or something like that

we typically use the verb learn when we

talk about gaining information

from books and reading and papers we

tend to use

study you can say you’re learning about

something from a book that’s great but

if we use study

in this case it sounds very very

unnatural

okay

all right shahana says she is learning

how to cook pasta good

okay good uh great so the last point

here yes is just to send the comment

what

are you working or what are you studying

on nahora says i’m learning how to drive

great okay uh a b c d says is it present

continuous to or not yes so

present progressive same thing as

present continuous

there are two different names for it

same grammar point yes

oh my gosh there are so many comments

now okay

um chris says i am studying an english

is this

correct no i am studying english i

am studying english english does not

need

an article you could say i am studying

an english

book you need a countable noun in that

sentence

ali says she is learning how to

programming close

she is learning how to program so see

this part right here

this part you need to use the verb in

the infinitive form yeah

right here this verb she is studying

how to program she is studying how to

cook whatever she is studying how to

infinitive so you cannot use the

progressive there

please use the infinitive the basic

dictionary form

cool okay sounds good great

all right let’s finish part one there

that was awesome fantastic

let’s go to part two i have loads to

talk about in part

two uh so we’ll take a quick break and

then we’ll come back

uh if you missed it earlier there is

free stuff

for you from the link below the video if

you’re watching on youtube or above the

video if you’re watching on

facebook uh stuff that you can download

pdfs vocabulary pdfs you can check out

uh you can download all of them did you

know that you can just go you don’t have

to choose just

one you can choose all of them here’s

the school one i mentioned

before there is a back to school one but

on the back are some expressions you can

use in class

you can use these in this live stream

actually

some of these points so you can check

this list

of expressions to use and there are some

excuses at the bottom here as well so i

wanted to share the business and the

school ones for sure today

but as i said there are many different

topics you can just go get them all

so check it out you need your name and

your email address

to make a free account and then you can

download everything

for free if you have trouble finding the

link to this stuff

after you make your account like it you

click the link in your email and go to

the bottom of the page scroll to the

bottom of the page and there’s a link to

get your free stuff some people told me

they had trouble with that okay let’s go

um let’s go to part two um

if you’re just joining also please make

sure to like and share this video so

other people can find today’s lesson

quick reminder if you’re just joining

today we are talking about

how to talk about your current work your

current projects your current

studies current means the stuff

you’re doing now what is true for you

now

okay so let’s look at our lesson boards

you can take a screenshot

if you like here we go first we talked

about present progressive

now we are going to talk about present

perfect with progressive and we’re going

to compare

these two grammar points because many of

you have questions about this

so let’s continue all right

a quick reminder about present

perfect progressive we’re going to cover

this later

we use present perfect progressive

to talk about an action that started

in the past and that continues

to the present so started before

could be a few minutes before it could

be hours years whatever

and that action continued until the

conversation

yeah for example i have been teaching

this lesson

for about 15 minutes 15 minutes

now 19 minutes okay i have been

teaching so this part right here is my

present perfect progressive part

to make present perfect progressive

again

we need to consider our subject i

you we or they plus have

plus bin and verb in the ing

form so this part this verb part this is

the same

yeah as part one of today’s lesson

but we need to use have been have been

to make it negative

not have not been if our subject is he

she or it we use has been has been

verbing okay very quick grammar review

if you have questions about this

i have many other videos about this

topic

that you can check out i’ll try to

include some links after the lesson so

you can review this grammar point

so let’s look at another example

you if my subject is you you

have been studying english

for a few months for a few months

so maybe you can already see we tend to

use

this pattern have been verbing yeah

with a time period for a few months

for about 15 minutes you’ll also see

since used this is because

we need to express the point when that

action started

so we understand how long the action has

continued

yeah okay some examples are coming in

salmazaki says i have been working in

the office for three years

good let’s see

uh other ones i have been watching

alicia’s lesson for 20 minutes perfect

perfect okay good i saw one on facebook

iman says

i have been teaching music for 30 years

careful not

i’m have been not i’m because that’s i

am i have been teaching music

music music is an uncountable noun

in this case okay uh all right

let’s go to the next one with a

we subject we have not

so here’s how you express a negative

this negative pattern is helpful

if you um have a change in your project

schedule or you have a change in your

study schedule

you can say we have not been working

on that project recently so recently

means like lately or these days

we have not been working on that project

recently

at native speed this gets reduced have

not been becomes very short we

haven’t been is like the next step down

we haven’t been working on that project

recently it’s how a native speaker would

say

an american english native speaker would

say we haven’t been working on that

project recently

okay uh there’s one example from jesus i

has been drinking for two hours careful

very close when your subject is i make

sure your helping verb is half

i have been drinking for two hours

he she and it these three take the

has helping verb okay uh i’m

on on facebook very close i have been

teaching music

no uh i have been teaching topic so for

teachers oh that’s a great actually

thanks for your example i’m on

for teachers i have been teaching topic

for 20 years i have been teaching

english

for 11 years i have been doing this job

for 11 years so you don’t need to use an

article

before like your profession like the the

topic that you teach

okay onward uh one more example

my friend has been working on a business

for a few months my friend has been

working so i have this has been pattern

here

because my subject is my friend yeah

so i don’t have he she or it

like directly in the subject place but

when i want to talk about one person

outside me it takes this same pattern

my friend has been my friend has been

working on

a business again we see this little

preposition here too again yeah

has been working on has been working on

a business for a few months okay

and some examples

let’s see yolanda i haven’t going

shopping since

march very very close i haven’t been

shopping or i haven’t been going

shopping since march i guess i would

probably say i haven’t been shopping

since march that’s probably what i would

say

many of you are writing i have been

studying english for two years

very cool i have been learning

uh computers for a month maybe umu

jamal on facebook i have been studying

english since

uh when i was a kid good okay fantastic

everybody has some good ones

especially about your english studies

that’s super cool

um let’s see i’m looking for progressive

tense examples so

but time’s going quick i want to make

sure we talk about

this point this is a huge point a huge

question point for many learners present

progressive

or present perfect progressive which one

should i use

first let’s refresh i use this a lot in

my lessons you’ve probably seen this

before if you’ve watched my lessons

before

this is a timeline this black line yeah

so here is the past this star is now

you watching this video and into the

future yeah

this blue line here squiggly blue line

this is present perfect progressive so

here’s some action that started in the

past

and that continues to the present so for

example i have been teaching this lesson

for 20 minutes this red line

squiggly red line is present progressive

something happening now so

to help you choose you can think do i

want to express an action that started

before

and continues to now or do i just want

to talk about an action

happening now sometimes it’s true you

can use

both and that’s totally correct so

sometimes people ask me

should i use this or should i use that

you can use both of them they’re both

fine

also you can sorry you can you can use

these

together here’s an example of this

i’ve been working on a big research

project i’ve been working on a big

research project

right now i’m doing interviews

right now i’m doing interviews so in

these two sentences

we communicate one the big thing that

started in the past

and continues to now i’ve been working

a big research project so my research

project is the big topic

yeah then inside that topic

is my current action right now

i’m doing interviews so i’m using

just this basic progressive form here to

do that

so if you have a big project or like a

big

i don’t know something big you’re

studying something like that

you want to talk about the big project

you can use this the present perfect

progressive

to talk about that and then you can talk

about the progress or sorry you can use

simple progressive to talk about the

individual

the one action you’re doing now the

present action

now okay all right that’s a lot

i’m looking for your examples

on facebook says my brother has been

traveling for two days

to makkah i hope i said that right good

okay

uh abdallah says i have been staying

home for five months yeah many people

have been staying home uh this year for

sure

um okay other examples

ananda says i have been volunteering for

three months so instead of

doing a volunteer sounds a little

unnatural but i

understand your point volunteer is a

verb

i have been volunteering for three

months

okay um juan says how long have you been

teaching english

i’ve been following your courses for

three years

so four comes before a length of time

yeah

since comes before a point in time i

have lessons about this

on the channel okay i have to finish

there

so we’ll finish there and go to the last

point for today some of you are making

questions which is fantastic

um so we’ll take one super super super

short break and then we’ll get some

questions that you can use

in your conversations and online as well

too that use this grammar

if you missed it quickly there are free

pdfs for you to download

from the link below the video if you’re

watching on youtube or above the video

if you are watching on facebook as i

said before you can download all of

these you don’t have to choose just one

i’ll show you some more i haven’t shown

you a lot of these i think

maybe we don’t need that one right now

family and relatives if you need to

brush up refresh your family and

relatives expressions

here’s a travel one maybe difficult for

many people

at this time uh but you never know

this one’s good for now maybe leisure

time activities

so you can refresh your vocabulary on

these points so check this all out you

can download

everything even if you don’t need it

right now

check it out okay uh also if you have

not already please please please make

sure to like this video and share it so

that other people

can find today’s lesson okay fantastic

i’ll show you today’s lesson boards

again so you can take a screenshot if

you like

but um okay we talked about part one and

part two

now we’re going to talk about part three

the last part

we’re going to practice some common

question patterns

i’ve chosen some questions that use

today’s

focus grammar so of course there are