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Transcript

00:00

Tenses a la Shmoop.

00:02

So youre sitting in Spanish class and the teacher calls on you to translate the

00:06

phrase if I had known you were going to attend I would have saved you

00:10

a seat and you both know that you would rather get into spandex and fight

00:15

lucha libre in front of the whole class than figure out how to say that.

00:19

had knownwere going to...

00:21

would have saved You dont have to think twice about saying a big fat phrase

00:25

in English a language with 12-16 tenses depending on who you ask but you probably

00:30

dont even know what to call the tenses you use in English every day.

00:34

So uh step away from the spandex for a secondand lets talk tenses.

00:38

Present perfect simple past perfect progressive conditional perfect the way we talk about tenses in

00:42

English just sounds like word diarrhea.

00:44

But if we break it down its all just a matter of time when

00:49

somethings happening and for how long.

00:51

First youve got your basic tenses past present future and conditional.

00:55

You know this stuff.

00:57

It either already happened or its happening or it will happen and if its conditional

01:01

it depends on something else happening.

01:04

The conditional is usually the then part of an if-then statement and it uses would

01:08

could or should.

01:10

Like when your mom says if you had finished your Spanish homework I would have

01:14

taken you to see the One Direction movie.

01:17

Anyway if we stopped there the English language would have just four tenses.

01:21

Four boring tenses.

01:23

Things would have to happen one after the other.

01:26

You could never be doing one thing while your friend did something else.

01:30

Thats why weve got ways to describe those tenses simple progressive and perfect.

01:34

All these words do is make the time of the tense even more specific.

01:38

Simple means that the emphasis is on the verb being executed.

01:41

That is you do something and then its finished.

01:45

Progressive --sometimes called continuous-- means that the emphasis is on duration being in the process

01:49

of doing something.

01:51

A progressive verb is making progress you could say.

01:54

Perfect means that the action has already happened but is significant in the present tense.

01:58

It uses the helper verb to have.

02:01

This one will make more sense in a second.

02:04

And now its just a mix-and-match game four basic tenses three descriptors.

02:08

To make sure weve got this down lets try it out bring out the presents

02:12

not that kind of present.

02:14

Simple present I speak. Simple.

02:17

The focus is on the action.

02:19

You speak and then youre done speaking.

02:22

Present Progressive I am speaking.

02:24

Its progressive because it emphasizes the process of the action.

02:28

Youre in the middle of speaking.

02:30

Present perfect simple I have spoken.

02:33

This ones perfect because it uses have as a helper.

02:36

Plus its already happened hes done speaking but its still important for the present.

02:40

Really anybody who says I have spoken thinks theyre important for the present and its

02:44

simple because its about the execution of the verb not the process.

02:48

Present perfect progressive I have been speaking.

02:51

Again its perfect because of the have and progressive because the focus is on the

02:55

process of speaking.

02:57

So weve got these seven basic terms past present future conditional simple progressive perfect

03:01

and with all the tenses all youve gotta do is take em apart term-by-term and

03:06

see what theyre made of.

03:08

Its better than losing to a guy in hot pink spandex ... NOTE end of file

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