 understanding and using action status verb pairs from Glenn Penrod at Georgetown University. What's wrong with these sentences? I have bought my car for five months. How long have they gotten married? He has met Jane since 2015. I wore my red shirt at 9 o'clock this morning. The problem is the verbs in the sentences don't differentiate between the action and the status or situation. In English we often use different verbs to distinguish these types of things. For example, I met John two years ago. The verb is referring to an action which occurred us at a specific time. I have known him for two years. The verb have known is referring to a status which occurs over a long period of time. We do not say I have met John for two years. Why is this important? Well, it has to do with phrases of duration, specifically with for and since. An action usually occurs at a specific time or point in time. Situation or status can exist over a long period of time. From the previous example, notice the symbols in red. The plus sign is referring to an action. Meet something that occurred only one time in the past. In the second example, the dotted lines refer to status. For example, know or have known, something that occurs over a period of time. In English we use different verbs for action and status in many cases. For example, action, status or situation. Action meet, status, know. Action buy or get, status, own or have. Move to a place, live in a place. Get married, be married. Arrive, be here. Return, be back. Put on, where. Fall asleep, be asleep. Let's look at some timelines. Again, the red is referring to the point or the situation. In the first example, it's an action. Meet or buy, referring to a one-time event. In the second example, it's referring to a status which occurs over a long term. For example, be married. In the third example, it's referring to a status that may have occurred for a long time in the past. Be asleep. We'll talk about that one separately. Let's look at an example. The boy fell asleep five minutes ago. That's when the action occurred. That's when he started sleeping. He is asleep now. This is referring to his status or situation. Now let's add the phrase, four, five minutes. Which verbs do we choose? He asleep four five minutes. Has fallen or has been. He has been asleep for five minutes. To review, the boy fell asleep five minutes ago. This is referring to a past action. The boy is asleep now. Present status, situation or condition. The connection is from the past to now. The boy has been asleep for five minutes. We're using the present perfect here. The situation, not the action, lasted a longer time. Let's change the situation. For example, two minutes ago, he woke up. He is awake now. He woke up is the action. He is awake is the status. What would you say in these sentences? Referring to the previous example. He asleep five minutes ago. Use the action verb. He up two minutes ago. Action. He awake now. Status. He fell asleep five minutes ago. He woke up two minutes ago. He is awake now. Now this gets a little tricky. What was his status three minutes ago? He asleep three minutes ago. Is it status or action? Was asleep or fell asleep? He was asleep three minutes ago. Referring to his status at that time. Putting it all together. We have an action five minutes ago, then another action two minutes ago, and we have a present status now. For example, fell asleep action was asleep. Status. Woke up. Action. Is awake. Status. In sentences and questions. The boy fell asleep five minutes ago. That's the action. The boy has been asleep until now. That's his present status. Now we can also say he was asleep for three minutes. That's referring to his previous status. The boy woke up two minutes ago. That was an action. The boy is awake now. That's his present status. We can use when or how long to ask for this type of information. For example, when did the boy fall asleep? We're asking for the action. How long has the boy been asleep? We're asking for the status. What's the difference between was asleep and has been asleep? Let's look at the timelines. Five minutes ago and now. He has been asleep for five minutes until now. Notice the red dotted line connects the past to the present now. Has been asleep. In the second example, we have five minutes ago, then two minutes ago, then now. He was asleep for three minutes in the past. We connect the five minutes ago to two minutes ago, which were both in the past. So we're talking about the time in between five minutes ago and two minutes ago. It is not connected to now. Another example. Focus on the TV, not the girl. Look at the examples in the pictures and then the timeline and then the words. Turn on, action, be on, status, turn off, action, be off, status. What happened at one o'clock? For example, when did she turn on the television? She turned on the television at 10 o'clock. What happened at 11 o'clock? She turned off the television at 11 o'clock. Let's look back at the picture. See the actions which occurred at 10 o'clock and 11 o'clock. Now, what was the status of the TV between 10 o'clock and 11 o'clock? At 10.30 in the past. The television was on. What is the status of the TV now? This is the present status. The television is off. How long was the television on? It was on from 10 o'clock to 11 o'clock. How long has the television been off? Let's pretend that now is 12 o'clock. It has been off for one hour. Let's try another one. Look at the pictures and look at the timeline and see if you can describe what's going on in this scenario. Take a minute to think about it. Okay, here are some verbs and expressions that you can use. Leave, left, be away, or be gone, return, come back, be back, or be home. Which ones refer to actions? Which refer to situations? Okay, now you do it. Describe this scenario. Two weeks ago, an action happened. Then, for a week, there was a particular status for the woman. Then last week, another action occurred and now we have another status for the woman. Think about it and describe the scenario to your teacher or partner. Pause the video if you'd like more time. Answers. She left two weeks ago. She was away for one week or she was gone for one week. She came back last week. She is home now or she is back now. She has been home for one week. Try it out with other verb pairs. For example, when did you buy your car? I bought it last year. How long have you owned the car? I have had the car for one year. Not I have bought the car for one year. Another example, my friend got married in July. He has been married since July. You try some. See the following verb pairs. Try some of these common verb pairs. Action. When did you? Status or situation. How long have you? When did you meet your friend? How long have you known your friend? Feel free to pause the video if you'd like more time. Note. We can also say he fell asleep at two o'clock. This is referring to a past action or he went to sleep at two o'clock. He is sleeping now. Present status. He has been sleeping since two o'clock. This is the current status with connection to the past. He woke up at four o'clock. Referring to past action. He was sleeping at three o'clock. That means between two and four o'clock. Past status. He was sleeping from two o'clock to four o'clock. Referring to his past status. He had been sleeping from two o'clock to four o'clock. This refers to the past status until another action occurred. The focus is just a little bit different. The reference for these materials is from Butler and you, training Chinese students to become aware of words that mark lexical aspect in English. Thanks for watching. If you have questions, please let us know at www.eslgold.com. 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