HAVE BEEN HAS BEEN HAD BEEN Complete English Grammar Lesson with Examples
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hello everyone and welcome back to
english with lucy today i have a grammar
lesson for you
we are going to be talking about have
been
has been and had been i have been
getting so many questions in my comment
section about well had been in
particular
but also has been and have been
in this lesson i’m going to clarify how
to use them and when to use them
don’t forget to complete the quiz at the
end of the lesson to test your
understanding and share your results in
the comments section down below
quickly before we get started i would
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let’s get started with the lesson
firstly let’s talk about the basics
let’s start with the present
i you we they and plural nouns go with
have been
i have been
they have been
the dogs have been
the children have been
he
she it
singular nouns and uncountable nouns go
with has been
she has been
it has been
the cat has been
the water has been
the past is much easier
all of the subjects can go with had been
i had been
she had been
the people had been
it had been
now let’s talk with the first and
easiest
use of have been has been and had been
this might be the easiest but it’s where
a lot of my students get confused and
make mistakes
we use have been has been and had been
when talking about travel experience
for example
we have been to seville many times this
means we have visited seville many times
note that it’s been to
but just visited without two
that’s another common mistake
another example
i’ve been to italy three times
i’ve visited italy three times
i’ve reduced have to just apostrophe ve
i’ve we can also use it as a question
for example
have you been to mexico
yes i’ve been to mexico or no i haven’t
been to mexico
please note that we can’t talk about
specific times
i have been to mexico last year is wrong
we’re talking about general experience
life experience not specific times
now we will talk about had been a little
bit more in the next section
but just to give a general overview you
can use had been when talking about
travel experience
we used had been when talking about two
events
in the past
for example
when i visited milan last year i had
never been to italy before
there are two past tense verbs here
i visited in the simple past
and i had never been
both happened in the past and it means
up until the point last year when i went
to milan for the first time before that
i had never visited italy
we’ll talk more about this in the next
section
let’s discuss the second use of these
forms
actions or situations that started in
the past and are still continuing now
for example
i have been studying english for three
years
or i have been studying english since
when we use four we’re talking about the
duration or the amount of time
for
six years
for
two months
when we say since we are talking about
the starting point
2016 was my starting point for studying
english
so with studying english i started in
2016
and i have continued for three years
until the present day
another example william has been
watching tv
since midday
or william has been watching tv for four
hours presuming it’s four in the
afternoon now we don’t always want to
talk about a specific action we might
just want to talk about a situation
without focusing on that specific action
for example he has been a cleaner for 11
months
he has been a cleaner since january
or
we’ve been together for two and a half
years we’ve been together since 2017.
now let’s take a deeper look into had
been
i’m going to take the sentences that we
used to learn have been and has been and
show you how they’re used with had been
and we’ll see how the meaning changes
so let’s take i have been studying
english for three years
let’s look at the first example
i had been studying english for three
years when i left the school
i started studying english at a specific
point in the past three years ago
i continued studying for three years and
then i left the school it ended it
finished i stopped studying english very
sad never stop
in the present i no longer study english
there are two past actions here
one continuous past action
i had been studying english
and a single finished action at the end
i left
compare this to the previous sentence i
have been studying english for three
years
here there is only one continuous action
it hasn’t finished it’s continuing in
the present
only use had been if there are two
actions in the past
one continuous action and one single
finished action
let’s have a look at the other example
sentences and change them to had been
william had been watching tv for four
hours when he stopped to do some
housework
the continuous action had been watching
and the single finished action
stopped he stopped
he had been a cleaner for 11 months when
he quit his job
the continuous action he had been
and the single finished action he quit
and the last one a sad one
we had been together for two and a half
years when we broke up
the continuous action we had been and
the single finished action
we broke up
now let’s move on to the third and final
use of have been has been and had been
we use them in the passive voice
now i use the website ebay a lot i don’t
like to bid on things i like to submit
offers
and i receive a lot of emails telling me
your offer has been accepted
your offer has been accepted
this sentence is in the passive voice
in the active voice it would be
the seller has accepted your offer
ebay uses the passive voice because the
seller isn’t important in this situation
what’s important is my offer so the
focus of the sentence is on the offer
another example a postal company might
say your parcels have been delivered to
a neighbor that’s the passive voice in
the active voice they would say we have
delivered your parcels to a neighbor
using the passive voice is a great
technique for companies and politicians
who want to remove any responsibility
from a situation a politician might say
mistakes have been made instead of i
have made mistakes
the active voice focuses too much on
them
when the passive voice removes them from
the situation
so how do we use
had been in the passive voice
admittedly it’s not so common this is
quite advanced but it’s important that
you know it because i’m sure you will
hear it
we use had been in the passive voice
if this is a recurring theme
there are two actions in the past
for example
the marketing campaign had just been
launched when the agency shut down
both of the events or actions were in
the past
the first event that occurred is
indicated with had been
so the campaign was launched first
after that
the agency shut down the second event
uses just a simple past tense
let’s look at another example
the plane had been waiting for fuel
when the pilot noticed a problem
again
two events in the past the first event
that occurred is had been
and the second event uses a simple past
tense
noticed
right
those are the uses for have been has
been and had been
now it’s time for you to do a quiz
i’m going to give you five questions
with enough time to think about each one
share your answers in the comments
section down below and i’ll see how many
i can correct if i don’t get to you
please help each other out and correct
each other
this is a gap-fill exercise
sentence number one
you
to germany before
sentence number two
she
waiting for the doctor since 9 00 am
sentence number three
a gang
arrested on suspicion of various crimes
sentence number four
he
searching for a job for three months
when he got invited for an interview
sentence number five
your letters
delayed in the post
and number six
when police arrived at the scene
the evidence
destroyed
right
share your answers in the comment
section down below
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and i shall see you soon for another
lesson
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you