This is an All Ears English podcast, how to dance around tricky past participles.
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Aubrey Carter, the IELTS whiz. and Lindsay McMahon, the English adventurer, coming to you from Arizona and Colorado, USA. and to get your transcripts delivered by email every week go to allearsenglish.com forward slash subscribe There is a funny thing that native speakers do when they want to avoid using certain less common verbs in English.
Find out what they do and how you can do this too.
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Hey there, Aubrey. How's it going today?
How are you feeling? I'm great, Lindsay.
How are you? Good, good. It's really hot today here in Denver.
It's 99 degrees out, I just saw. So that is hot.
It's hot in Idaho too. I'm like trying to escape the Phoenix heat and I think it's 95 here.
So still quite warm. Yeah. Well, have you drunk a lot of water today because it's so warm out, Aubrey?
Oh, great question. I haven't drunk a lot of water.
That question sounds a little weird to me.
Does it sound weird to you? It totally sounds weird.
It totally sounds weird. Before I said it, I was like, is this right?
Let me just double check in my head. Right?
Yes. Right. Because we avoid saying the word drunk, even though that is correct grammar to say, have you drunk a lot of water?
That's the past participle. We really avoid it.
Everyone. I feel like in the United States, you don't hear this a lot.
And even when I've taught this, you know, you and I have both been teaching English for 20 plus years.
Every time I've had to teach this, I will go back and double check that the grammar is right.
Right. Because it feels wrong because we don't hear it very often.
Totally. Exactly. So this is what we're going to get into, this little funny thing that native speakers do, which is what, Aubrey?
What exactly do they do when they feel weird about a past participle of a verb?
Yes, we have a few techniques we use to avoid them.
We dance around these past participles. And we're going to teach you today what natives do that you can do too.
If ever you're not sure about a past participle, there are a couple of little hacks you can use.
Yeah, this is a real art. And I know that we've taught the phrase dance around just I think this summer we taught that. on All Ears English.
So I'm really excited about this because our listeners know what that means now.
So what should our listeners do right now, Aubrey, before we go any further in the episode?
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Alright, so if you want to ask this question, Aubrey, what would a native speaker more likely do rather than asking the question, have you drunk a lot of water today?
What would we do? do instead? Yeah, they would likely use the present perfect continuous and they would say, have you been drinking? a lot of water.
So they would avoid that past participle, drunk, and they would use a different grammar tense entirely.
And often this works. We talked about this a lot on the podcast that often there are a few options for the grammar tense, right?
Maybe depending, like, does time matter if the exact time doesn't really matter?
Sometimes you have options. Yeah, and it totally works here because we're still in that day, right?
The day's going on. It makes complete grammatical sense.
The other thing that I do just as an asterisk in this kind of situation is I just grab another verb, right?
And that's not what we're talking about today, I don't think, but we could do another episode on that.
That's a great idea. Be sure to hit follow.
I agree, right? You might say, are you staying hydrated?
Yeah, that's a good one too, yeah. Sounds like a Mountain West question. question, right?
Everyone in the Mountain West is always, you know, hydration is really important, but, or even just saying like, have you had a lot of water today?
Just something really basic. But I know that the past participle of have is had.
Don't have to worry about it. I feel... I feel comfortable, right?
Yes. That's what's fascinating, right? A lot of native speakers do this.
We even do it and we both have master's degrees in English, right?
But because We don't hear it a lot because everyone else is avoiding it, even though we know the correct grammar. we often will also dance around it.
We often will also use a different verb tense.
So you guys out there listening, you certainly can too.
That is so funny. How did you think of this topic today, Aubrey?
Yeah, this came up when Michelle and I recorded a podcast about the verb grind.
Past tense, ground. Someone had written in asking about the past tense.
They hear it as ground and grinded. And this is, we mentioned like often we'll avoid this instead of using ground or grinded. we'll do this and say I've been grinding herbs my whole life if we're not positive about the past participle because this is another one where natives use both past tense verbs.
So you might go to say it and not be sure, and you can use one of these hacks, change the verb tense.
Yes, I love it. We obviously have to make sure it works grammatically.
Sometimes it changes the meaning of what we're saying, right?
So that's... But what does this look like?
So the first tip, we're gonna show our listeners today exactly how to do this, how to dance around the past participle.
If you feel like you never hear it, It sounds weird.
You think people might look at you like you're strange.
If you use it correctly, what would you do?
What's the first strategy? Exactly, right?
These are some pro tips. Your first strategy is that you could swap present perfect tense with present perfect continuous.
So the difference here is instead of having to have that past participle, Instead, you use been, B-E-N, and then verb I-N-G.
So that's easy. You have the base verb at I-N-G.
You don't need to know the past participle.
Yeah, way easier. So instead of saying I haven't drunk enough water today, and again, I don't hear even.
Even people that are super educated and well-read, they also might do this, use these strategies, right?
This is not necessarily about education levels.
Okay. Right. This is really the best example because regardless of education level, someone might either be trying to just avoid the word drunk. or because they never hear anyone else saying it that way, even though it's correct grammar, they're maybe trying to avoid sounding pretentious.
And so they are just speaking the same way everyone else they know speaks.
Right. So then what would it sound like?
Again, one more time, Aubrey, if we use strategy one.
Yes. So instead of, I haven't drunk enough water today, you would say, I haven't been drinking enough water today.
And they mean the same thing. Like you said, Lindsay, it's still within the same day.
Whether you use present perfect continuous or present perfect tense, it means the same thing.
So pick the easy one. You don't have to have that past participle drunk.
Yeah, and I think this really is about the grammar just not being used.
Another reason that native speakers maybe don't use it is because we reserve the word drunk for when you're inebriated, right?
And maybe if you use it, you think people are going to think you're saying you're drunk.
I'm not sure. That's definitely a possibility, right?
If you say I am drunk, that has. a very different meaning than I haven't drunk a lot of water.
So you might be worried someone just hears the word drunk and misunderstands.
Exactly. For whatever reason, we have this negative connotation with it and we avoid it a lot.
Yeah. But it's not. the only one that we do this for, right?
As we said, so what's another example of how we could use strategy one here?
Yeah. So there are common mistakes when people aren't sure about the past participle.
You might hear someone say, I've drank. I have drank.
That's the mistake. It should be I have drunk.
So we have drunk. Again, there are other verbs where the past participle is different from the verb in past tense.
So it can cause mistakes. Someone might not be positive. they might change their verbs.
So another example is run. So the past tense verb is ran, but then the past participle is run.
So you should say, I have run a lot this week.
And someone might say, I have ran a lot this week.
I've heard that mistake from native speakers.
A lot of people will change it just to in case they're not certain of the past participle.
Exactly. So if we changed it and we're going to use the continuous form, we're going to say I've been running a lot lately.
Okay. So that means that I've run a lot lately means the same thing.
I've been running a lot lately. When you're using these present perfect tenses, you're talking about something that's continuing to happen.
You're going to run more. You've been running.
So either tense is correct. Yes, I love it.
So instead of saying I've run a lot lately, I've been running a lot lately.
Again, saying the same thing. Love it. Okay.
And then go went gone. What's the mistake that we hear here? this should be a little more low hanging fruit, right?
Yeah. This is interesting. So go is the verb.
Went is go in past tense, but then the past participle is gone.
There are actually a lot of verbs like this where the past participle is irregular.
There will be certain regional dialects where this mistake is much more common.
And you hear someone say, I've went instead of I've gone.
So again, instead of saying, I've gone to the grocery store so often this week, you can use that present perfect continuous and say, I've been going to the grocery store so often this week because it's a repeated action.
You can often swap it out with present perfect continuous.
You can, I mean, you can get away with it.
This might be a place we disagree. This one I think is something our listeners should learn, right?
I've gone, it's just such an incredibly common verb.
Go went gone, right? It's everywhere. So I think for this one, We should just learn it and use it.
And for me, it's less common to hear someone avoid this one, Aubrey.
This is really interesting because this really comes down to regional dialects.
I think when you grew up, you didn't hear this mistake very often.
So it feels, it sounds and feels very ungrammatical to you.
It sounds perfectly normal to me because where I grew up, people say I've went all the time.
This is also very common in African-American English.
So it's interesting that one person might really see it as an error, because you grew up hearing things a certain way.
But we do want to be careful what we call a mistake because it's so common in certain dialects, certain regions. that you will hear it if you're in the United States, maybe on TV podcasts, but especially if you're traveling in the United States.
In some regions, it's extremely common. But this is a good way to avoid it being an issue at all.
Yeah. But I do think that, you know, for our listeners, when they make the choice whether to avoid gone or themselves.
I would encourage them to just use gone, say it correctly, because it's such a building block of the language.
Don't you think, Aubrey? Instead of avoiding it and dancing around it.
Yeah, interesting. Yeah, it's interesting to think about.
I can see what you're saying, right? For everyone out there learning English, right?
If you're choosing which verbs to... Dance around to maybe switch up the verb drink is the biggest one where native speakers are going to do this it because you hear drunk so seldom Absolutely.
Switch that out, right? Run also. Yeah, it's true.
It seems so doable to learn that gone is the past participle for go.
You will hear native English speakers, especially in the United States, make this mistake.
But yeah, it's best case scenario, right?
We learn that past participle so that we can say, I have gone.
I've gone to the grocery store a lot. Yeah, and I totally agree with you.
I think that mistakes are relative, especially in terms of our philosophy. we do believe that there is the regional differences But with this one, I think it's just a little different.
I think it's let's learn the grammar. When we're choosing to make this statement, let's say it by the book in this case.
Interesting. So let's move on to number two.
You can also swap present perfect with present continuous.
So we'll just give some quick examples with these same three verbs.
Drink, run and go. Instead of I've drunk a lot today, you can say I've been drinking a lot today.
Right. So same. And then what about run?
Yeah. Instead of saying I've run a lot this week, we could say I've been running a lot this week.
Yeah. And then with Go, I've gone to the movies a lot this month.
I've been going to the movies a lot this month.
We also use this for questions. For example, instead of asking someone, how much have you drunk today?
You could say, are you drinking a lot today?
Yeah, I like it. So the present progressive, right?
So not until this time, but just in general today, right?
Love it. Love it. Or instead of, have you run a lot lately?
We could say, are you running a lot these days?
Right. Exactly. Yeah. And go, you could say instead of have you gone to many concerts this year?
You could also say, have you been going to many concerts this year?
Right. So it's interesting to think about, like we said earlier, if time doesn't matter, usually you can be more flexible with the tense. with which verb tense you're using, and you can often avoid that past participle.
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Hiring Indeed is all you need. All right, Aubrey, we are back for a role play.
So here we are friends that run into each other at a park.
So you ready? You want to start us out? Yes.
Hey, Aubrey. I feel like I see you here running a lot lately.
Well done. Hey, good to see you. Yes, I've been running every day.
I'm training for that marathon next month. impressive i hope you're staying hydrated have you been drinking enough water Trying to.
What about you? Have you been running much lately?
I used to see you jogging here at the park all the time.
Not as much. I've started focusing on weight training.
So I've been going to that new gym across town.
Okay. All right, so shall we go through this and see what verbs we danced around here?
Yeah, we got a lot of examples here. I first said, yeah, I've been running every day.
So I could say I have run every day. But some people will like, oh, what's the past participle?
I have ran every day. I have run every day.
If you're not certain, use this continuous tense.
I have been running every day. Yes. And then I said impressive.
I hope you're staying hydrated because we need to drink to build a run.
And then I said, have you been drinking enough water?
Instead of saying... Have you drunk enough water?
Drunk enough water. Yes, exactly. And this is more common, this dancing around, right?
You won't often hear, have you drunk enough water today?
Instead, have you been drinking enough water?
Exactly. And what's the last one here, Aubrey?
And then I asked, have you been running much lately?
So same thing when you're asking a question.
You can also change up that verb tense. And then you said, I've been going to that new gym across town.
And in this case, it's interesting to think about sometimes the continuous tense makes more sense.
You can say, I've gone to that new gym across town, but because it's a repetitive action, Often, this present perfect continuous makes the most sense anyway.
And it is the easiest to create because you don't need the past participle.
Yeah, I totally agree. It wouldn't convey the same meaning, right?
You'd have to say... yes, I've gone to the gym across town three times so far this week, right?
To say the same thing. Yeah, you could say I have gone to that new gym a lot.
You can keep it general, but yeah, it's when both work, if you're not sure about the past participle.
Stick with the continuous. Love it. All right.
What's another episode our listeners should check out right away?
Yes, this is the one we mentioned where Michelle and I were talking about Grind. and that common native speaker mistake where you'll hear grinded instead of ground.
So check it out. It was 2434 vocabulary to help with your English grind.
Yes, I love it. And for the takeaway today, I mean, I think this comes down to these are habits that native speakers participate in dancing around certain verbs because for whatever reason, we're not sure if it's right.
We don't hear other people say it or we feel awkward saying it is okay to do it.
You just choose what verb, which verbs you want to do this with.
Definitely. And you're going to hear native English speakers make these mistakes.
Don't worry about it. It is interesting to think about.
When should you speak like the people you're hearing speak?
And when does correct grammar really matter depending on the situation you're in?
It really does change how important it is.
Yeah, this is a theme that comes up a lot on the show, right?
And so those are choices that we make in each moment, depending on the context, who we're around and how we want to connect, right?
There are different ways to connect. Okay.
Love it. Yeah. Interesting. Really interesting grammar today.
Thanks for joining me, Lindsay. All right, Aubrey.
Talk to you soon. Bye. Talk to you soon.
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