Grammar ~21 min of the core left

Talk about your experience at a job interview

After this lesson you can

I can talk about my work experience and choose between the perfect and the Past Simple.

Start the lesson Core 19–21 min · steps: 6 · optional: +2

Declared core time. Two of the core blocks carry no figure at all, so the real lesson is longer than this sum.

Grammar

5 min

Both tenses talk about the past, but they answer different questions.

Present Perfect	Past Simple
what has happened in your life	what happened at a certain time
I have worked in a hotel.	I worked in a hotel in 2019.
She has lived in three countries.	She lived in Italy for two years, then came back.
experience, result, link with now	a finished episode in the past

A rule you can use straight away: if the sentence NAMES THE TIME of the event, the perfect is impossible.

time named → Past Simple	time not named → Perfect
yesterday, in 2019, last week, two years ago, when I was a student	ever, never, before, already, in my life, so far

for + a length of time is not a date and goes with both tenses: a finished episode — I worked there for two years; still going on now — I've worked here for two years (lesson 5).

A typical conversation goes like this — first the perfect, then the details in the Past Simple:

Have you ever worked with children?

Yes, I have. I worked in a school for two years — from 2018 to 2020. I taught English and I liked it very much.

The first question is about experience in general; everything after it is tied to a time, so it is the Past Simple.

Common learner errors

written for your language

The perfect with a date

✗ I have worked there in 2019

✓ I worked there in 2019

In German (Ich habe 2019 dort gearbeitet), French (J'ai travaillé là-bas en 2019) and Italian the form with "have" also tells when something happened. The English perfect does not (lesson 3). This is the main mistake of the lesson.

When with the perfect

✗ When have you left the company?

✓ When did you leave the company?

When asks about a time, so it takes the Past Simple, with did in the question.

The past for experience

✗ Did you ever work with children?

✓ Have you ever worked with children?

Latin American Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese ask about experience with a simple past, and so does American English, so people will understand you. In British English it is the perfect.

The perfect about someone who has died

✗ My grandfather has worked as a doctor

✓ My grandfather worked as a doctor

In German, French and Italian the "have" form is normal here; in English his life is finished, and there is no link with now.

Pronunciation

3 min

The difference is carried by the auxiliary verb, and it is unstressed — so it is hard to hear:

I've worked there.	/aɪv ˈwɜːkt/
I worked there.	/aɪ ˈwɜːkt/

The only clue is a short /v/. So in a native speaker's speech you often have to work out the difference from the meaning: is there a time in the sentence?

Text

3 min

Have you ever worked in a hotel?

Yes, I have. I worked in a small hotel in Italy for two years.

When was that?

From 2018 to 2020. I left when the company closed.

Have you ever managed a team?

No, I haven't. But I have worked with a lot of different people.

Reading aloud

Exercises

8–10 min

1. Multiple choice.

I (work) in a hotel in 2019
I (work) in a hotel — I know this job
you ever (be) to Italy?
I (be) in Italy last summer

Show the answers

worked, have worked, Have … been, was.

2. Error correction.

I have worked there in 2019.
Did you ever work with children? (British English)
My grandfather has worked as a doctor. (he died)

Show the answers

I worked there in 2019. / Have you ever worked with children? / My grandfather worked as a doctor.

3. Matching.

yesterday
in 2019
two years ago
ever
never

Show the answers

`yesterday`, `in 2019`, `two years ago` — Past Simple; `ever`, `never` — Present Perfect.

4. Continue the dialogue.

— Have you ever worked in a shop? — Yes, I have. … Example answer: I worked in a shop for a year, from 2019 to 2020.

Summary

Covered

a first look at the perfect against the Past Simple
the rule "time named — Past Simple"
how a conversation about experience goes

Next — lesson 21: studying.

End of the core

The lesson counts as done once the exercises are done. Everything after this is optional.

Lesson 57

optional

Vocabulary for your deck

12 words

experience /ɪkˈspɪəriəns/ what has happened to you; what you know from doing things
interview /ˈɪntəvjuː/ a meeting where they ask you questions for a job
manage /ˈmænɪdʒ/ to be in charge of people or of a business
team /tiːm/ a group of people who work or play together
skill /skɪl/ something you can do well because you have learnt it
CV /ˌsiː ˈviː/ a document about your education and work that you send for a job
apply for /əˈplaɪ fɔː/ to ask in writing for a job or a place
salary /ˈsæləri/ the money you get for your work every month
different /ˈdɪfrənt/ not the same
taught /tɔːt/ past of teach
left /left/ past of leave: went away from (a job, a place)
so far /səʊ ˈfɑː/ until now

Writing

Five sentences about your work experience: what has happened in general, and what happened when exactly.

Example

I have worked for three companies. I worked in a hotel in Italy for two years, from 2018 to 2020. I have never managed a team, but I have worked with a lot of different people. In 2021 I worked in a shop for six months. I have always liked working with people.

Checklist

where the time is named — is it the Past Simple?
Where it is experience with no time — is it the perfect?

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Practise this lesson in the other sections

Dictationbased on this lesson Write down what you hear. The check shows every word that differs, and how. Write the dictation Reading aloudbased on this lesson Read the lesson text aloud — speech recognition highlights the words it did not catch. Read the text aloud Reading and listeningA1–C1 Texts at every level with comprehension questions; the transcript opens after you answer. Try it

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