So, when was that?

That’s it. You are doing great already. You are here to improve, aren’t you? Now take that deep breath, relax your shoulders, relax your jaw, and let’s get going. This will be easy, I promise!

Hello everyone, and welcome! This is English Airs, the podcast that will give you effortless accuracy, and this is the tenth episode. Who am I? My name is Parya, I teach, and at the moment live, in Tokyo. I have no idea what the future will bring. I do know about the past though. Well, my past. I have visited Istanbul, I have studied a few languages, and I have never had back tea in my life, not even when I was a baby. Anyway, enough about me.

Today we want to address one of the most confusing pairs of tenses in English: Is it “I have done” or “I did”? Deciding which one to choose is much, much easier than you think. Come along and let me show you. Or come along and practice what you know.

Let’s look again at what I said just a minute ago: I have visited Istanbul. Now I am going to ask you a few questions, easy ones, and you answer in your head, ok?

1. Did I visit Istanbul in the past?

2. Is the visit finished?

3. Do you know when I did that?

And the last question, an important one, am I alive?

Ok! You got everything right! the visit is in the past and finished, you don’t know when I did that from what I said. And as of now, I am alive. We will see why this last one is so important a bit later, but for now, that’s it! These are the questions you need to ask:

1: Did it happen in the past?
2: Did it finish?
and
3: Do the listener and the speaker both know when it happened?

If the answers are yes, yes, and no, go ahead and say “I have done this” or “I haven’t done this”. Let me give you some examples:

I have ridden a camel and I’ve had camel milk. It was very watery!
I have never been to Hokkaido, but I really want to go.
I have held a hedgehog in my hands. They are so adorable! I have put the picture on the webpage if you want to take a look.

And now it’s your turn. Tell me about things you have done or haven’t done in your life. I’ll wait for you to think and answer, as always out loud if you can.

Well done! Wasn’t it easy? Don’t forget to email me a recording of some of those examples! If we listen to each other, we learn better.

Ok, now we can go back and see why it’s important that I am alive. Do you know Agatha Christy? She is not my favorite writer, but do you know how many books she wrote?  66 detective novels and 14 short story collections! Amazing, isn’t it? But here is a question: do you know when she wrote them? Of course you do: when she was alive! Can she write any more novels? She can’t, can she? So I can say I have written a few stories because my life is not over yet, and that means what? Yes! You don’t know when I wrote them. So what is the last thing we need if we want to say “I have done”? Right again: an unfinished period.

The important thing here is that this unfinished period does not have to be your life all the time. Sure, it can be your life, but it can also be this year, this month, today, this morning (if it’s still morning), or in this episode. So now, I want you to think, and tell me some things that you have done, or haven’t done this year, this month, or today. Like this:

Since I came to Japan, I have visited several cities and towns here. I haven’t been to Hokkaido yet. 
This year, I haven’t been to any concerts.
Today I have done 6 things on my to-do list. 

Now you! I’m listening!

Well done! See? Not difficult at all.

Moving on. We saw that up until now, we were talking about things without pointing out when they happened. And what if we have an idea of time? It’s obvious, right? Let me tell you about when I went to Istanbul, and then we will check together:

One of the most beautiful cities I have been to is Istanbul. I went there with a friend in early summer one year. The weather was great, but one day we got soaked in a sudden rain! The streets were so beautiful that every day we spent some time just walking around and enjoying the atmosphere.

You were right, weren’t you? We use “I did it”, or “It happened” when we both have an idea about the time. So, when did my story happen? Exactly. When I was in Istanbul. That is an idea about time, and it is enough. So to decide which form to use we need to ask ourselves one question: “So, when was that?”

Ok, let’s see how we can get comfortable using these sentenses. Is your reminder ready? I am going to give you a few questions, and I’m going to pause after each one a little so that you can answer right now, out loud if you can:

What have you done today?

What haven’t you done this week?

What did you do yesterday?

What didn’t you do last year?

Set the reminder to repeat every day, and remember to give new answers every time. 4 answers every day for one week is at least 28 examples! And you don’t even have to sit down and do grammar exercises!

And here is an extra tip: If you have the time, or if you want to, make these questions about a friend or your partner, too. You get double the speaking, and it’s very real, so you will easily remember.

If you are not sure about something, leave a comment on the webpage, and I will answer. Plus others can see it too, and we will all learn from each other. Wouldn’t that be great?

Let me know your thoughts, and if this topic has been one of your problems, make sure you listen to this episode a few times. Also, please keep telling people who might need this podcast about it. As you know, I would like to help anyone I can. Could you help me with that, please?

Parya out!