English Grammar: Using PRESENT PERFECT Tense with 'NEVER'

Hi. I'm Rebecca from engVid. In this lesson, you're going to start using the present perfect

tense right away in an easy way. Now, a lot of students get a little bit scared of using

the present perfect tense, but you don't have to be, especially after this lesson. I think

you'll find an easy way to use it, and a reason to use it. Okay?

So, first of all, just very quickly: What's the present perfect tense?

It sounds like this.

It sounds like: "I have skated." or "I have flown." Right? So, what does that

mean? When I say: "I have skated many times in my life." it means that at some time in

the past, I did something and it's still true today. Okay? So just as we can talk about

things that we have done in our lives... For example: "I have seen that movie.",

"I have read that book." Correct?

The same way, you can also talk about what you have never done,

because I'm sure that there are some things that you've never done, just like there are

some things I've never done. So, we can use the present perfect to describe these actions

as well. So, I'll show you what I mean? Okay? There are many good examples on the board.

So, let's look at this. So, for example, with that sentence that I gave you at the beginning:

"I have skated many times in my life." Now, actually, that's not true. I have never skated,

okay? Even though I live in Canada, I have never skated. So, that is how we can use the

present perfect tense with the word "never". So, "skated" is a regular verb. Regular verb

means that in the past tense we add a "d" or an "ed".

"Flown" is an irregular verb,

so when we use it with the present perfect, we use the past participle. There's usually

like a third form, there's a long list, you kind of have to learn by heart, when you're

in school, when you're learning the present perfect, and you can practice it here because

you'll see many examples that I've written for you on the board.

So, here, we put the word "never" just before this last verb. Okay? So: "I have never skated.",

"I have never flown." Okay? What do I mean by "flown"? So, for example, flown by airli-...

By air. That's not true. In my case, I have travelled. But there are many people in the

world who have never had a chance to travel by air, so they... That person could say:

"I have never flown by air." Okay? All right.

So, let's look at many examples so you'll understand how to say something like this.

So, here I've got all the subjects, here we have the word "never", and here we have many

regular verbs, and here, many irregular verbs. So let's make a lot of different sentences

so you can hear the pattern of this type of sentence, as well as understanding the grammar

of it. So, here we have the subject: "I've". What is "I've"? "I've" is short for "I have".

Right? But when we are speaking in conversational English,

usually we don't say: "I have never flown."

or "I have never eaten..." No. We just say: "I've". Okay? So that's a contraction.

All of these are contractions that we use in regular conversational English.

So, let's make some sentences, now. "I've never visited China." Okay? So, here, we had

the subject, the word "never", the verb, regular verb, past tense form, and some more information.

Right? "I've never visited China.", "You've never talked to him before.",

"So why are you talking to him now?" somebody might say. Okay.

"We've never tried Korean food.",

"They've never played so well."

Let's say you're talking about a team, a sports team. Okay?

"He's never worked so much.",

"She's never lived alone." Okay? I'm going to give you this last one

in a... In a few minutes.

Let's take some of this... These examples, here. These are with irregular verbs. Right?

"I've never felt so happy.",

"You've never heard their music.",

"We've never eaten there before."

There, probably a restaurant. Right? "They've never seen that movie.",

"He's never slept so late.",

"She's never written to me before." Okay?

So, you see that with all of these subjects, we can use

the word "never" very easily. All right? You're using present

perfect, you're using "never" to talk about something that not at one time in your life

have you done before.

So let's see how to use it now with "It's". Okay? What kind of sentences can we make with

that? Let's say, for example: "It's never rained so heavily." Now, sometimes we use

the word "before". Okay? Or you can just say: "It's never rained so heavily. Wow. Look at...

Look at the weather, it's never rained so heavily." Or: "It's never rained so heavily before."

It means in all the time in the past till now. That's present perfect. It's always

talking about all the time in the past, including now. Or:

"It's never snowed so hard." Okay?

So, here's one example. Another example:

"It's never taken me so long to drive home." for example.

That's an irregular verb, here, "taken". Or, as you can say, I hope you'll say:

"It's never been so easy to learn English." Okay?

So, if you'd like to practice this, please go to our website: www.engvid.com.

There, you can do a quiz on this and many other topics in English.

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Okay? Thanks for watching. Bye for now.