Talking about the Very Recent Past in English Basic English Grammar

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hi everybody my name is Alisha in this

lesson I’m going to talk about using

just for the very recent past and for

the near future let’s get started

alright I want to begin this lesson by

talking about the very recent past so I

have two different patterns that you we

can use to talk about the very recent

past with just the first will be four

actions that were completed very

recently and the second will be four

actions that were planned for completion

recently so let’s start with this first

one here number one I’ve marked it on

this timeline here with a check mark so

on my timeline this is the present back

here is the past

four actions then that we’re very

recently completed we can kind of

imagine this check mark as like

something that happened very very

recently so just before now so a simple

statement pattern that we can use with

just is this subject plus just plus a

simple past tense verb this is the most

basic way to make a statement with just

some examples are I just finished work

or he just arrived or they just left so

you see in each of these very simple

example sentences we have just followed

by a simple past tense verb in these

cases finished arrived and left so if

you want to make a basic statement about

a finished action something that has

finished it’s done in the very recent

past you can use a pattern like this I

want to include one note about this this

particular point this number one point

you might also hear the present perfect

used by that I mean instead of I just or

he just or they just sometimes people

will use I’ve just he’s just

they’ve just so this

and s here this is I have just he has

just they have just you may hear present

perfect used as well it has this same

meaning

like I’ve just finished work or he’s

just arrived or they’ve just left the

meaning is the same

for whatever reason the speaker has

chosen to use present perfect tense

perhaps it sounds a little bit softer

but these two uses or rather these two

patterns have the same purpose it serves

the same function so you may hear these

two

let’s look however at kind of the

opposite of this so point number two

here is used to express an action that

was planned for the very recent past but

that did not get finished it’s not done

it was not completed it might get done

in the future we don’t know but it did

not happen

so to imagine this like visually we can

use this X mark in the very recent past

so something just before the present

time that did not happen but we had a

plan to do this so some examples of this

actually I’ll introduce in a second but

when we want to make a statement with

this kind of grammar we can use again

the subject but we’ll use the past tense

form of B so by that I mean the be verb

so that means like was or were plus just

about two so this is a key difference

here between the regular completed

action pattern and then we’ll use the

present tense form of the verb so here

you’ll already notice maybe there are a

couple of different points between this

and this so some examples of this in

action I was just about to call you

or we were just about to leave or she

was just about to cancel the appointment

so in each of these example sentences we

see our subject plus the past tense form

of the verb to be

in this case I was we were she was so

here’s our beaver then we include just

about to there’s no change in these

sentences just about to something and

then our verb is the present tense form

of the verb call leave and cancel in

these cases so when you want to talk

about something that was planned for the

very recent past but that did not happen

you don’t need to change the verb you

don’t need to conjugate the verb to past

tense we conjugate the verb to past

tense when we’re talking about finished

actions so please keep these points in

mind so simple past tense for completed

actions present tense simple present

tense for actions that are not completed

or were not completed okay so with that

in mind about the very recent past I

want to talk now about some patterns you

can use with just for the very near

future so let’s begin with this first

one number one here this pattern is used

to talk about an action in the very near

future so something we have planned we

are thinking about that action or were

planning to do that action in the very

near future so here on this timeline

we’re looking now into the future so

this is my now point this number one

I’ve represented with a check mark here

so this marks an action that I have

planned I want to do that or I’m

thinking about that action and I’m going

to do it soon to make a basic sentence

with this a basic statement we can say

subject plus the present tense of the

verb to be plus just about to and the

present tense form of the verb

so you’ll notice actually there’s only

one difference between this sentence and

this sentence and that’s this part right

here in this part where we were talking

about the very recent past we use the

past tense form of the verb to be I was

you were here we’re using the present

tense form of the verb

be I am we are so this is one hint that

it’s actually a future action so this

will tell you is it a future action or

is it a past action it’s a small point

to listen for some examples though are

I’m just about to finish work or he’s

just about to arrive or they’re just

about to leave

so here I’ve reduced it in each of these

example sentences but my B verb is here

I’m is I am he’s is he is and there is

they are so I’m just about to finish

work he’s just about to arrive they’re

just about to leave these tell us

something is going to happen very soon

another point about this is that

sometimes native speakers will drop just

from this pattern so I’m about to finish

work he’s about to arrive they’re about

to leave these are all fine they

communicate the same thing it’s just the

speaker’s preference so you can choose

whichever you prefer okay

then I want to continue to point to for

this part point to let’s look at the

pattern first its subject plus the

present tense be again here plus just

and then we see the progressive form of

a verb so this is something that we use

for an action that’s happening now and

it’s like something that we expect is

going to finish in the very near future

so we use just to emphasize this to

visualize this then on a timeline we can

imagine with this kind of wavy line here

that something is happening now and it

will continue until the very very like

near future

so maybe it stops or it finishes here if

you want to talk about an action like

that you can try using this pattern so

some examples are I’m just finishing

work or he’s just arriving or they’re

just leaving

so these show like the action has

already started so I’m just finishing

work means maybe I’m

taking my last like steps in my day or

I’m taking the last I don’t know bits of

information from my day and putting them

somewhere I don’t know it depends on you

but we use these to talk about actions

that started and that we expect will

finish very soon so you can try using

one of these at like the end of your

workday or like maybe when you’re

leaving a location those are some common

situations where we would use patterns

like this so please keep that in mind

when you’re using the progressive form

of the verb it’s going to sound like

something is already like happening now

it’s begun when you’re using it without

when you’re just using the present tense

form of the verb here it’s something you

are planning to do in the future okay

so that’s a quick introduction to using

just for the very recent past and for

the near future I hope that you found

some patterns that you can use to talk

about your recent past and to describe

some of the things you’re going to do in

the near future of course if you have

any questions or comments please feel

free to let us know in the comment

section of this video and also please

feel free to leave some example

sentences if you want to practice using

this grammar of course if you like the

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with your English Studies thanks very

much for watching this lesson and I will

see you again soon bye bye

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