How to Talk in English about Something Youve been working on

okay i think it’s rolling great hi

everybody and welcome back to our weekly

live stream my name is alicia and in

this week’s

live lesson we are going to talk about

how to talk about

something you are working on so this is

something you can use

to talk about your projects to talk

about your professional work

and maybe just your home projects too

that’ll also work

today’s focused grammar points will be

present progressive

or continuous present perfect my name is

alicia

uh we’ll talk about present progressive

or continuous

present perfect and we’ll also talk

about present

perfect continuous i want to practice

these three grammar points

to describe your current status or your

current situation

cool so let’s get started uh actually

before we start as always a couple of

quick announcements

uh first announcement as always at the

bottom

is this banner here this pdf banner you

can take a look

uh there are a bunch of pdfs for you to

download

to practice vocabulary phrases and

there are some conversation use

pdfs now you can check out those are

i don’t have them printed here but take

a look at the link

to check those out you can find some

pdfs for

talking on the phone and for everyday

like uh

everyday use phrases like super super

basic phrases you can use

around town so check those out uh from

the link below the video if you’re

watching on youtube or above the video

if you’re watching on facebook take a

look you can print them out and practice

announcement too is as always if you

have questions for me

if you have questions for me about

vocabulary grammar

uh whatever other little questions

something you think of someday send it

to me

for the ask alicia series this is a

screenshot of it you can find a link for

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that would be super cool okay i think uh

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hello everybody

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i’m looking for you

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okay everyone is here so as you join

please make sure to like and share this

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can find today’s lesson i am going to

share

the video boom and then i’ll show you

today’s

lesson boards this is what we’re going

to talk about

today okay today’s lesson topics quickly

present progressive or continuous

present perfect

and finally present perfect progressive

so i know these grammar points seem kind

of similar

and many people ask or many people write

in the comments like

what’s the difference between this one

and that one so that’s

what we’re going to focus on in today’s

lesson

uh but like the focus topic will be

your work or your projects um something

that you are doing

now so let’s get started and of course

uh send your questions live in the chat

i’ll try to answer but

there’s a lot so okay let’s get started

so first

let’s begin our first grammar point for

this week

is present progressive or present

continuous we can use the same

vocabulary words

uh or rather we can use either word

progressive

or continuous to talk about this point

so for today’s lesson

uh i’ve made a diagram at the bottom

of each board just to refresh your mind

about

when we use this or what the purpose of

this grammar point is

so a short reminder we use present

progressive or present continuous

to talk about a temporary action

something continuing now

here’s a quick guide to how to make

a simple very simple present progressive

sentence so for example i

am and verb in the ing

form the ing form in my case for example

i am teaching or you are watching

you are listening or

it is raining for example so

we can use present progressive or

present continuous

to talk about something temporary

continuing

now something temporary is a key uh a

point

many learners make a mistake with

sometimes they use uh this tense

to talk about a regular action so for

example

if you work in new york city sometimes i

hear learners say

i am working in new york city but if

that’s your regular workplace

you can’t use it that way use simple

present tense to do that

okay so here’s how we make a simple

statement

to make it not or to make it negative we

use

not before the verb okay so you can send

me your example sentences

in the chat i will try to check them

okay

let’s go so let’s look at a few examples

now let’s look at a few examples

you can use to express uh to express

some like work or some status project

update some project status updates for

example

i am working on my

website i am working on

my website so i want to introduce a few

key verbs so some vocabulary words you

can use

uh in these situations so i am

working on a common point or common

mistake is

learners forget this on i am working my

website

can’t use that not correct i am working

on working on my website so don’t forget

those little words

i’m working on my website okay

another one he is learning how to code

he is learning how to code so we have

this embedded point here how

to something something you can change

this verb

so for more intermediate or advanced

learners

change this verb right here to the topic

of your studies he is learning how to

cook he is

learning how to sing he is learning how

to

dance i don’t know whatever so learning

how to like infinitive verb form

to change this okay learning how to

okay next one she is studying

studying for an examination

or an exam or a test it’s also okay

all right she is studying four again

point here this uh four you have to use

four okay john lego says alicia do we

have to use the verb in the ing form yes

to make the progressive form you have to

use an ing

here someone wrote i’m going to

blah blah blah that’s good so i’m going

to i’ve missed it i missed it in the

chat

i’m going to school i think it was in

the chat that looked pretty good

uh okay then uh one more i wanted to

include a negative here

a couple of negatives here uh to

show the reduced form in particular so

we aren’t this aren’t aren’t is the

pronunciation aren’t

um aren’t is the reduced form of

are not are not we are not

working at the office right now we

aren’t working

at the office right now you could say we

aren’t working

in the office right now as well both are

fine

finally they aren’t returning

our calls they aren’t returning our

calls

this one i wanted to include because

it’s common

so to return someone’s call means like

you received a call from someone

but you didn’t uh pick up you weren’t

there sorry

you called someone but they did not pick

up the phone

and uh they didn’t call you back

so to call someone back another way to

say call someone back

is to return a call this means

someone some group of people like a

client for example

is not returning our calls so it sounds

like they’re avoiding

you or they’re ignoring you or they’re

running away or something

you might hear this sometimes he isn’t

returning my calls she isn’t returning

my calls

and so on okay good

so a couple points so i showed you the

reduced form here of are

not yeah they aren’t aren’t

up here i didn’t use the reduced forms

but it’s very natural

to use the reduced forms in speech so

she is becomes

she’s she apostrophe s he is becomes

he’s and i am becomes i’m

i’m so uh another thing i’ve noticed

learners sometimes don’t pronounce the

sound when they reduce this in speech so

for example

sometimes i hear learners say i working

on my website

incorrect can’t say that not i working

i’m i’m working i’m working

i hear that mistake a lot a lot

okay your examples uh babna says they

aren’t received

our emails receiving

so the big point here is to use the ing

form they aren’t receiving our emails

there’s a technical

problem okay uh hey around says how can

i get the pdfs check the link below

oh you’re on facebook check the link

above this video on facebook in the

description for this video

okay uh how to spell

i’m and i am says someone in the youtube

chat you just spelled it

that you you just wrote it you just

spelled it

okay um all right

present continuous is used as an event

that is happening

now yes that’s a nice way to express

today’s

grammar okay nice it seems that this

sounds good let’s go to making questions

then

so how do we make a question with

present

progressive or present continuous so

here i have at the beginning wh

question yeah so who what where when why

how wh question to get information

plus are or is or am

so same verbs as up here

yeah match them to your subject so

what are you verb in the ing

form again for example what are

you doing what are you doing

very common question very common

question

at native speed that sounds like what

are you doing what are you doing

or maybe even what you doing what you

doing

another one what is she working on

what is she working on so to ask for

a status update about someone else

what is she working on at native speed

this sounds like

what’s she working on what’s she working

on

here’s another one where are they

going for lunch where are they going

for lunch at native speed i say where

are they going for lunch oh where are

they going for lunch

and finally who is he talking to

who is he talking to okay so a few

examples

of uh questions also to make

this this this pattern right here this

is an

information question yeah so you use

this pattern you’re looking for

an answer to this what or where or who

right but to make a simple yes or no

question

same pattern just remove this

are you something is he

am i this part i should point out this

one

am i verbing like for example wait

am i streaming right now like if i want

to check my settings or

wait am i am i running late

something like that this pattern we use

this pattern

am i verbing to talk to ourselves

like to confirm something with ourselves

okay

all right i’m looking for your uh

someone i missed your name in the chat i

think it was on facebook

what are you talk about i think i saw uh

again use what are you talking

about so ing verb form here yeah what

are you talking about what are you

talking about

raquel wright writes am i going crazy am

i going crazy

good example good example okay so and

again

a quick uh reminder this is what we use

uh this is a visual an image of this

grammar point so

here’s the future up in the future

present

now is this star and the past this blue

line this continuing line

it’s like a temporary action so

uh short term action that’s true

now this is what we use the present

progressive

to do okay uh good some other examples

are coming in on youtube

uh jermaine asks okay what are you doing

i’m learning live on youtube with alicia

perfect nice example nice example

victor says what are you doing i’m

working as a forensic expert ooh that

sounds

interesting very nice great okay very

nice

other people say i’m working on my

language skills

good ah some other ones

okay lots and lots of other other ones

so i’ll move on i think this sounds good

nice sentences everybody let’s take one

short break and then we’ll go to part

two

uh present perfect present perfect so

again if you missed it today’s live

lesson is about how to talk about

something you’re working on so

you can use these grammar points to talk

about your professional

project updates your studies

or even your hobbies like home projects

and so on so

i hope it is helpful also if you have

not already please make sure

to like and share this video so other

people can find

today’s lesson and if you have not

please check the link below the video on

youtube or above the video

on facebook you can download a bunch of

pdfs oh these are for emergencies

important to know so you can refresh

your vocabulary

i saw someone ask a question earlier

about how to get

these yeah uh check the link on facebook

above the video

youtube below the video uh you need your

name and email address and then someone

said

they couldn’t get past the first page uh

at the bottom of the first page there’s

a link to get

uh to get to these unless the team

changed it it should be at the bottom of

the page i tried it

so check that out if you had trouble

getting it

before okay so let’s go to

part two present perfect tense present

perfect

sense all right um so let’s go to the

next grammar point

for this lesson today i’m looking for

your questions hello

everyone who is joining now who has

joined

okay present perfect everybody loves

present perfect

right present perfect so what do we use

present perfect to do

first let’s refresh our minds present

perfect

is used as in this diagram here

two full talk about an action

that started in the past and continues

to the present we use continuous to do

this

also i will talk about that point later

or it’s an action that happened in the

past

but it affects the present so there’s

some kind of

effect a direct effect in the present

so let’s look at some examples

here is how we make the present perfect

tense

so we have two groups of subject

i you we and they

plus have and the past participle

form of the verb so i’m not going to

cover this uh a list of these today you

can use your

google skills to find this out so

uh if your subject is he she or it we

use

has and the past participle verb so

i have verb or he has verb

to make your sentence negative not

not okay so not comes before your verb

have not verb has not verb

today in this lesson i want to focus

mostly

on the negative form of this it’s useful

to to show you’re thinking about the

next

step in whatever you’re working on so

first one this will be just a positive

sentence to begin

i’ve finished my to-do list

for today i’ve finished my to-do list

for today

this i’ve is i have

the reduced form i have finished my

to-do list

for today finished is the past

participle

verb form of finish so i’ve

finished my to-do list

to-do list my task list for

today so this means i had a list of

things to do

just for today today’s to-do list that’s

what this expresses

okay so let’s go

to some negative examples then

here he hasn’t finished

the proposal he hasn’t

finished the proposal here

hasn’t he hasn’t this hasn’t is

has and not he hasn’t

finished the proposal proposal means

an idea like a professional idea

he hasn’t finished this proposal

all right another one she

hasn’t submitted

the paperwork yet she hasn’t

submitted the paperwork yet

submit this is the base verb here to

submit

she hasn’t submitted to submit something

means to

turn something in to to give

someone a document to give someone

paperwork

officially to submit she hasn’t

submitted

the paperwork yet this point here

i want to talk about this has yet

this sentence does not have yet he

hasn’t finished the proposal what’s the

difference

we’re going to talk about this next week

but

yet at the end of a sentence

like this shows expectation

so i expect she

will submit the paperwork i have some

expectation

she’s going to do it but it has

not happened it has not happened this

sentence

he hasn’t finished the proposal is like

a report

i have no expectation or i don’t

communicate

an expectation yet shows the expectation

this is the difference here

okay um all right

some others how do you know these

classes are really live rafael

does that help you okay let’s go to the

last one

we haven’t taken a break today

we haven’t taken a break today this is a

very common one

if you have a very busy day

we haven’t taken a break today

here haven’t this is the reduced form of

have not have not we haven’t

taken taken this is the past participle

verb form

of take we haven’t taken a break today

so again the negative form maybe we

don’t practice it a lot

but this is very useful to express the

next

step or something we plan to do in the

future

john carlo lanois says we haven’t scored

d at the end of score yeah we haven’t

scored a touchdown we haven’t scored a

touchdown

okay all right uh john

legos says i haven’t finished my

homework yet that’s true

good luck with your homework very nice

uh shongs

says he hasn’t finished his homework yet

nice nice uh he hasn’t given my money

back yet says babna nice example

sentence

uh jantani says alicia hasn’t finished

her broadcast yet that is correct yes i

have

oh not very long to finish this

um oh conwell g writes he’s not

started learning french yet and don’t i

would not recommend using he’s

not use he has

not or he hasn’t if you want to make the

negative form

don’t reduce he and has into he’s

reduce these two he hasn’t he hasn’t

that’s not and then that sounds perfect

he’s

he hasn’t started learning french yet

uh chosen rights i haven’t free time

today yet

very close i haven’t you need a verb

here

we need a verb we haven’t had free time

today so i

have not had free time today and then

it’s perfect

so don’t forget your verb there okay

all right um oh sunshine writes i

haven’t returned

in my assignment yet very close with the

verb to return

something means to give something back

to the original

owner you don’t want to do that i

haven’t

turned in i haven’t turned in

or submitted i haven’t submitted my

original

assignment yet okay

all right other questions

all right okay great so nice example

sentences i hope that helps you

so uh let’s be done let’s finish

the present perfect part and go on to

the final part

for today’s lesson present perfect

progressive

so today we’re building on these three

grammar points okay

so let’s go uh also if you have not like

this video please like this video

share the video it helps us it helps

others find it yeah

so um let’s go to the last part

the last part for today bottom

present perfect progressive or present

perfect continuous

and also uh some of the vocabulary words

in today’s lesson uh you can find

some key verbs there’s a new there’s a

new pdf

that’s about common verbs i don’t have

the printed version but i saw it and

there’s a new pdf

about common verbs that you can download

so if you want to practice these grammar

points you can use that pdf to do it so

check the link above or below the video

to download that

okay let’s go so final grammar point

today last grammar point

present perfect progressive or present

perfect continuous both are fine

what do we use this to do all right

let’s look at our diagram so we use

present perfect continuous

to talk about an action the action

started

in the past so here’s my timeline past

now and the future we use it to talk

about an

action that started in the past and

continued continue to continue

and is continuing we’ll probably

continue

after the conversation

so yes there are cases

in which it’s okay to use this grammar

point

or just present perfect so for example

ah i have lived in new york for

10 years or i have been living in new

york for 10 years they’re both 100

correct so there are some cases where

you can use

both but sometimes we want to

emphasize we want to communicate more

strongly the continuing

status of something so we use this

grammar point

to do it okay so how do we make it

very very very very similar to

just basic present perfect so this part

is the same we have these two subject

groups i you we they have

and then we use bin

and a verb in the ing form

i have been teaching you have been

listening

she has been watching and so on so

have been and has been

are used before an ing

verb phrase then typically usually

at the end we use for or

since four or since these

we have to choose one only one we use

four before in this case two

hours so a period of time

since before a point in time

this part tells us when the action

started okay so let’s practice with some

examples

i have been cooking dinner for

two hours i have been cooking dinner

for two hours maybe a very

difficult complex dinner alberto cool

thanks very much for supporting us on

youtube that’s super nice

okay someone writes a fun funny kid says

i have been watching this video yeah

good

so i have been watching this video for

30 minutes maybe 30 minutes or so

okay so another example he

has been building his website

since last month

he has been building his website since

last month

last month is my point in time

so i use synths to describe them

next example my friend

has been advertising

her business in a local

magazine for six months

my friend has been advertising her

business in a local magazine

for six months final example

we have been taking care

of our neighbors pets

since friday we have been taking care

of our neighbors pets since friday

oh there are so many example sentences i

will read some

uh now i’ll choose a few a lot of people

are writing about their english studies

i have been learning a lot of english

grammar

about a lot of english grammar uh con

maljeet says i’ve been learning from

alicia

since last year good example uh jose

says i have been cooking rice for one

hour nice one

okay uh shang says i have been studying

english yes great uh hudson says it has

been raining for two days non-stop

really where are you um raquel says we

have been ah

we have been working out in that gym

since january great examples everybody

okay um oh my gosh there are so many

comments coming very quickly

she has been running at the park says

everybody alicia how long have you been

studying

english all my life i’m still studying

everybody’s always still studying you

learn new things

all the time actually side note i just

posted on

twitter yesterday there is a great list

of kind of

new vocabulary words like slang

vocabulary words

and many native english speakers

particular like uh

many native english speakers were

writing wow i don’t know these new words

so we’re always learning okay so your

example sentences look really good

uh rocio oh one of our members had i

have been working as

a software developer as a software

developer

since 10 years ago you can say that

or for 10 years for the last

10 years remember four before a time

period so the last 10 years is a time

period

okay all right phew great lots of

example sentences

time oh i’m out of time let’s go to the

last part for today’s lesson

some of you are making great questions

already

but here is how to make questions or

question making pattern

with present perfect progressive

so again we have our wh question who

what where when why how

quick i know so who or what have

subject been verbing so

what have you been doing what have you

been doing you might say to

a little kid making a mess in a room

what have you been doing so this

communicates the action started in the

past and continues

to the present and you’re like what have

you been doing

so this shows you’re communicating the

action

started in the past for example another

example

what have you been working on

recently what have you been working on

recently or what have you been working

on lately

what have you been working on

this part a pronunciation point what

have you been working on

we reduce this this what have you

becomes what what of you what of you or

very very short what you’ve been working

on what you’ve been working on

really really short yeah so a

real quick point there this one where

have you been taking classes where have

you been taking classes

about a hobby or new study topic

we reduced this to where have you been

to where you’ve been where you’ve been

where you’ve been taking classes

oh where you’ve been taking classes so

this part reduces

where have you been finally

who have you been talking to all day so

someone is on the phone or texting

all day you might say who have you been

talking to all day

who have you been talking to all day so

some people ask like

should i use whom in this question

you can you can in general everyday

speech we tend to use these who patterns

more so not to whom have you been

talking

all day so technically correct yes but

we don’t use

uh well i would say most in every in

most everyday conversations we don’t use

that pattern

we typically use who you’ve been talking

to all day who have you been talking to

all day

okay that was a lot

i have to finish it’s time so great

examples everybody

uh didn’t i s did i miss something

russia i see your same example sentence

again like oh

oh oh maybe i did miss something okay so

great so we’ll finish there um

that was a lot so that was present

progressive present perfect oh i’ll just

show you the lesson boards you can take

a picture

if you want to keep this if you’re ready

boom there you go so present progressive

present perfect and present perfect

progressive

tense that’s kind of hard to say it’s a

lot of information

so i hope this was helpful for you and

you can

express uh your current status

with these grammar points we are going

to use them

uh again next week so i’m trying to

uh create more chances to review in live

lessons

uh in next week’s lesson that will be

february 10th

wow already that’s just amazing we’re

going to talk about how to give

status updates again so similar topic

here

and we’re going to focus on yet already

and still how do we use these words to

communicate

more depth how do we give more detail

about our expectations we use these

words

to do that so please join me next week

to cover this

topic okay let’s

wrap it up there so if you missed it uh

please don’t forget to check out the

pdfs for you to download

from the link below the video as i said

uh there are some

uh i would recommend for today’s lesson

maybe

the verbs pdf this one’s different uh

the verbs pdf would be a nice one to

download to practice

uh changing the verb forms with today’s

grammar points so check that out

link below or above the video all right

so uh do i have any time oh my gosh i

have to finish

someone says do you teach once a week

nancy yes i do you can find me here

every week uh wednesday or thursday

depending on your time zone

you can get a notification if you

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description

i gotta wrap up thanks very much for

joining me i will see you again