Vanessa: Hi, I'm Vanessa from SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.
com.
Since? For? Until? Which one's right? Let's talk about it.
Vanessa: Have you ever wondered “Can nativespeakers understand what I'm saying?” Well, even if your accent isn't perfect orif you use basic vocabulary, most people can figure out what you're trying to say.
But there are some key words that are essentialto use in your sentence to have the correct meaning.
I've talked about these keywords on my channelbefore, words like “actually, ” “unless, ” “though.
” And today, we're going to focus on three morekey words that are essential so that the correct meaning of your sentence is understood.
They are “since, ” “for, ” and “until.
” I hear English learners make mistakes withthese words a lot, but after this lesson your mind will be cleared and you'll be able touse them correctly.
Let's get started.
Vanessa: I want to introduce each word witha little quiz because it's always more fun for you to guess than for me to just tellyou right away, right? So, I want you to guess which word or whichphrase would be best in this sentence.
“I've lived here since.
.
.
” Which one of those is best? Can I give you a little hint? When did you start living there? What was the starting point? It was 2018.
So, we could say, “I've lived here since 2018.
” We use “since” when there is a starting pointthat is continuing until now.
Let's take a look at a couple other examples.
“She's been worrying about her exam sincethis morning.
” That means that the morning is the startingpoint, and the action is continuing right now.
She has been worrying about her exam sincethis morning.
Vanessa: “I've been playing soccer since Iwas five years old.
” Has this person been continuously kickinga soccer ball for the last 30 years of their life? No.
This just means that they have played soccer.
They have been an active participant maybeon soccer teams or they've been interested in soccer since they were five years old.
So, that is the starting point, five yearsold, and the action is continuing to today.
Vanessa: Notice that all of these sentencesuse the present perfect tense.
“She has been worrying.
.
.
” “I've been playing.
.
.
” I hope that throughout today's lesson youwon't feel stressed about the present perfect tense.
Instead, because we'll be using it a lot, you'll just feel like it will come naturally.
Vanessa: Let's take a look at two more sentences.
What about these two sentences? The first one's positive; the second one'snegative.
But they have a very different meaning.
The first one, “He has been eating since thismorning.
” That means he has been continuously eatingsince this morning.
What is that action, eating, that has beencontinuing since? When was the starting point? This morning.
Vanessa: Well, what about the second sentence? It's negative.
“He hasn't eaten since this morning.
” So, our starting point is this morning, butwhat is that continuous action? Well, it's kind of a non-action of not eating.
He hasn't eaten since this morning, so he'sprobably really hungry.
You need to get him some food.
He hasn't eaten since this morning.
He's starving.
Vanessa: Let's go on to the next word, whichis “for.
” I want to give you a little quiz sentence, and then we're going to compare some of the same sentences we just saw with “since” andthen also with “for.
” Let's take a look at our first quiz question.
What seems like the best ending for this sentence? “He has studied for.
.
.
” Which one feels the best? Let me give you a little hint.
How long has he studied? What is the length of time? Five years.
When we use “for, ” we need a length of time.
Vanessa: Let's take a look at the same sentencesthat we looked at with the word “since, ” but let's add the word “for” and see what changes.
“She has been worrying about her exams sincethis morning.
” This is the sentence we just looked at earlier, but what if we want to add the word “for”? “She has been worrying about her exams forthree hours.
” This is our length of time.
How long? For three hours.
Vanessa: “I've been playing soccer since Iwas five years old.
” That's the starting point.
Since I was five years old.
But what about with the word “for, ” with alength of time? “I've been playing soccer for 30 years.
” I've been playing soccer for most of my life.
That is the length of time.
Vanessa: “He has been eating since this morning.
” Nonstop, continuous eating.
He has been eating since this morning.
Or we could say “He's been eating for fivehours.
” Why hasn't he stopped yet? Is he not full? He has been eating for five hours.
That's the length of time.
Vanessa: “He hasn't eaten since this morning.
” Well, we have our negative sentence, but whenwe want to add “for, ” we can just add the same thing.
“He hasn't eaten for five hours.
” That ending part, in the positive and thenegative sentence, is the same, but of course our meaning's different because we have apositive verb and a negative verb.
“He hasn't eaten for five hours.
” Let's find him some food.
Vanessa: Let's go on to our third word, whichis “until.
” What is the best ending to this sentence? “I drove that car until.
.
.
” Would you like a hint? When did I stop driving that car? When did it break down? 2019.
So, when we use the word “until, ” we needa stopping point.
Vanessa: Let's look at some of those samesentences that we saw before with “since” and “for” plus a couple others because I wantto show you some different ways that you can use “until.
” “She worried about her exam until it was finished.
” That was the stopping point: until it wasfinished.
And then she stopped worrying.
She worried about her exams until it was finished.
Vanessa: “I played soccer until I broke myleg.
” So, here we have a turning point, a stoppingpoint, a stopping time.
After I broke my leg, I couldn't play soccer.
Maybe after it healed, I could play again.
But I played soccer until I broke my leg.
Vanessa: “He ate until he had a stomachache.
” He ate until he had a stomachache.
Were you ever like that as a kid that whenyou got a lot of candy, you just ate until you had a stomachache, and then maybe youbriefly regretted your decision? I ate until I had a stomachache, and thenthe next year I forgot about it.
Vanessa: “He didn't have a smartphone until2009.
” So, we have a negative sentence, and thatnegative action is continuing, and it stopped in 2009.
So, the stopping point is 2009, when he boughta smartphone.
So, he didn't have a smartphone until 2009, when he bought one.
Vanessa: “I didn't realize I could learn Englishuntil today.
” So, you had this negative feeling, “I can'tlearn English, I can't learn English, ” and then today you watched this lesson and yourmind was changed.
Until today.
Great.
Vanessa: “I haven't found a good teacher untilyou.
” Thank you so much.
So, here we're talking about some negativething that has happened.
I've tried a lot of different classes anda lot of different teachers and I haven't found a good teacher, but then something changed.
This negative action stopped, and I founda good teacher.
Wonderful.
Vanessa: We talked about a lot over the pastfew minutes with “since, ” “for, ” and “until.
” Do you think you're ready for a little test? I wrote this fun story, and I want you tofill in the blank with the correct word.
Is it “since, ” “for, ” or “until”? I'm going to read the story, and then I'mgoing to pause when there's a blank.
I want you to think about which words shouldgo in the blank, and then I'm going to read that sentence again with the correct wordso you can see if you got it correct.
Are you ready to hear a silly little story? Let's do it.
Vanessa: Ricky the Raccoon walked into a barand asked for a beer.
The bartender looks surprised and said, “Ihaven't seen you here.
.
.
last year.
” “I haven't seen you here since last year.
” Vanessa: Ricky explained, “Well, I was sickfor a while, and I couldn't drink.
.
.
I got better.
” “Well, I was sick for a while, and I couldn'tdrink until I got better.
” Vanessa: The raccoon and the bartender chattedabout their past year.
.
.
two hours.
The raccoon and the bartender chatted abouttheir past year for two hours.
.
.
another customer came in.
.
.
.
until another customer came in.
Vanessa: It was Benny the Badger.
Ricky and Benny have had a bad relationship.
.
.
they were baby cubs.
Ricky and Benny have had a bad relationshipsince they were baby cubs.
Vanessa: Because of Ricky's sickness, hisheart had softened.
He looked at Benny the Badger and said, “Benny, I'm not going to leave this bar.
.
.
we make up.
” “Benny.
I'm not going to leave this bar until we makeup.
I'm tired of fighting with you.
” Vanessa: After a long, heartfelt conversation, they shook hands and hugged.
Do you know what? They've been friends.
.
.
five years withoutone fight.
They've been friends for five years withoutone fight.
Vanessa: Did you like that silly little story? Now, I'm going to read the entire story altogetherwith the correct words, and I challenge you to try to say the sentence exactly at thesame time as me.
Shadow my voice.
Practice with your speaking muscles, yourpronunciation muscles, and also the grammar that we learned in this lesson.
Let's say it together.
Vanessa: Ricky the Raccoon walked into a barand asked for a beer.
The bartender looked surprised and said, “Ihaven't seen you here since last year.
” Ricky explained, “Well, I was sick for a whileand I couldn't drink until I got better.
” The raccoon and the bartender chatted abouttheir past year for two hours until another customer came in.
It was Benny the Badger.
Ricky and Benny have had a bad relationshipsince they were baby cubs.
Because of Ricky's sickness, his heart hadsoftened.
He looked at Benny the Badger and said, “Benny, I'm not going to leave this bar until we make up.
I'm tired of fighting with you.
” After a long, heartfelt conversation, theyshook hands and hugged.
Do you know what? They've been friends for five years withoutone fight.
Vanessa: Great work practicing these threechallenging words today.
And now, I have a question for you: In thecomments, can you make a sentence that uses either “since, ” “for, ” or “until”? I look forward to reading your sentences, and make sure that you read each other's sentences too to just expand your practice.
Thanks so much for learning English with me, and I'll see you again next Friday for a new lesson here on my YouTube channel.
Bye.
Vanessa: The next step is to download my freeebook, Five Steps to Becoming a Confident English Speaker.
You'll learn what you need to do to speakconfidently and fluently.
Don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channelfor more free lessons.
Thanks so much.
Bye.
.
