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