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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