Akihiro's Journey: Focusing on Verb Tense

2025-05-20 00:00:00 / episode: 438

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Welcome back to English Listening World! I'm Les Perras, and this is the seventh episode in our series "Akihiro's Listening Journey." In our previous episodes, Akihiro discovered the rhythm of English, learned to break sentences into manageable chunks, practiced shadowing, mastered high-intensity repetition, discovered the power of closing his eyes, and learned to identify Subject-Verb-Object patterns. Today, he'll focus on something that often causes confusion for English learners: verb tenses. For many language learners, especially those whose native languages handle time references differently, English verb tenses can be particularly challenging to catch in conversation. Today, Akihiro will discover how focusing on verbs first can dramatically improve his comprehension of when things happen. Let's join Akihiro as he makes this important discovery! – Chapter Seven: Focusing on Verb Tense

Eight weeks into his English listening journey, Akihiro sat in a client update meeting, feeling more confident than ever before. His growing toolkit of listening techniques had transformed his daily work experiences. Where once he caught maybe 60% of conversations, now he regularly understood 85-90%.

But today's meeting with the Thomson project stakeholders presented a new challenge. As the client representatives discussed their timeline expectations, Akihiro noticed they kept referring to different time periods—past work, current status, and future deliverables—often within the same sentence. "We've been working on this for a month, and we are still encountering some integration issues, but we'll have resolved them by next week." Akihiro understood most of the words, but the time relationships confused him. Had they already resolved the issues? Were they currently working on them? Would they be fixed in the future?

"Akihiro, could you please update the client on where we stand with the security implementations?" Akihiro felt a moment of panic. He needed to be precise about what had been done, what was in progress, and what would be completed later. "Yes. We... finished the initial security audit last week. We are currently implementing the encryption protocols. We will complete final testing next month." He spoke carefully, using simple present, past, and future forms to be safe. Mr. Wilson nodded encouragingly, but Akihiro could tell his response lacked the nuance the client needed.

"Thanks, Akihiro. Have you been addressing the vulnerabilities we identified in our last meeting? We've been particularly concerned about them." There it was again—a verb form that Akihiro recognized as present perfect progressive ("have been addressing"), but he wasn't sure if they were asking about ongoing work or expecting something to be completed already. "Yes, we started addressing them immediately after your report." He opted for a simple past tense statement, avoiding the complexity. It was technically correct but missing important time context.

After the meeting, Akihiro felt frustrated. Despite understanding most of the words, he had missed crucial information about timing and sequence. "Tough meeting, wasn't it? These client updates always involve a lot of time references." Tanaka-san had joined him in the elevator. "Yes. I understood their words, but sometimes I wasn't sure if they were talking about finished work, ongoing work, or future plans." "Ah, verb tense confusion. That was one of my biggest challenges too."

"Even when I hear the tense correctly, sometimes I don't process the time meaning fast enough to understand the full message." "That's because many of us were taught to listen for nouns first. We try to identify what things are being discussed before we figure out what's happening with them. But in English, the verb tense is often the key to understanding the entire situation." Akihiro considered this. He did tend to focus on identifying subjects and objects first, using his SVO technique.

"Try this: when listening, focus on the verb form first. Once you identify when something is happening, the rest becomes clearer." "Focus on the verb tense first? Before the subject and object?" "Exactly. In situations where time relationships are important, try to catch the verb form immediately. It gives you the framework for everything else."

Back at his desk, Akihiro researched English verb tenses. He created a simple chart comparing the basic forms: simple past, simple present, simple future, then the perfect forms, the progressive forms, and the perfect progressive forms.

Next, he opened the recording of the client meeting and listened carefully to one of the client's statements: "We've been working on this for a month, and we are still encountering some integration issues, but we'll have resolved them by next week." This time, Akihiro focused on identifying the verb forms first: "have been working" - present perfect progressive (ongoing action that started in the past and continues to present) "are encountering" - present progressive (happening now) "will have resolved" - future perfect (will be completed by a specific future time)

He listened to more examples from the meeting, each time focusing on verb forms before processing subjects and objects. "The development team had completed the first phase before we identified the security issue." Verb forms: "had completed" (past perfect - action completed before another past action) and "identified" (simple past).

The next day, Akihiro had a one-on-one update with Mr. Wilson. "So Akihiro, how long have you been working on improving your English listening skills?" Akihiro immediately recognized "have been working" as present perfect progressive - an ongoing action from the past until now. "I've been working on it systematically for about two months now. Before that, I had studied English in school, but I had never focused specifically on listening techniques."

"Well, it's really showing. By the time the Thomson project launches, you'll have transformed into one of our strongest communicators." Akihiro noted Mr. Wilson's use of future perfect: "will have transformed" - something that will be completed by a specific point in the future. "Thank you. I've been learning new techniques each week. Right now, I'm focusing on verb tenses, which has been particularly helpful for client meetings."

That afternoon, Akihiro had another opportunity to practice during a call with the development team. "We've been optimizing the code for three days, but we still haven't solved the performance issue. We're running additional tests now, and we'll have completed them by tomorrow morning." This time, Akihiro focused first on the verb forms: "have been optimizing" (ongoing action from past to present), "haven't solved" (present perfect - completed action with present relevance), "are running" (present progressive - happening now), "will have completed" (future perfect - will be finished by specific future time).

"I understand. You've been working on it continuously, but the issue remains. You'll finish the new tests by tomorrow morning. What time will you share the results?" "We'll send them by 10 AM." That evening on the train home, Akihiro added to his growing collection of listening techniques:

"Technique #7: Focus on Verb Tense First Listen for verb forms before focusing on subjects and objects Verb tense provides the time framework for understanding the whole message English uses tenses to show: When actions happen (past, present, future) Whether actions are completed or ongoing How actions relate to each other in time Common challenging forms: Present perfect: have/has + past participle (action with connection to present) Present perfect progressive: have/has been + -ing (ongoing action from past to present) Past perfect: had + past participle (action before another past action) Future perfect: will have + past participle (action that will be completed by future time)"** He also noted how this technique combined with his previous ones: Use rhythm recognition to identify stressed verbs Apply chunking to isolate verb phrases Close eyes during complex time references Identify SVO, but focus on V first when time relationships are important

Akihiro smiled as he closed his notebook. Seven techniques now, each building on the others. What had once been a confusing blur of English sound was becoming increasingly clear. The time dimensions of conversations, which had been so elusive before, were now revealing themselves through the verb forms. Tomorrow would bring new challenges, but with each technique, he was developing a more comprehensive system for understanding. The journey continued, one verb tense at a time. – And that's how Akihiro discovered his seventh listening technique: focusing on verb tense first!

To practice this technique yourself, try these simple steps: When listening, direct your attention to verb forms first Notice time indicators through tense (past, present, future) Pay attention to whether actions are completed or ongoing Listen for helping verbs (have, has, had, will) as tense clues Practice identifying complex forms like present perfect and future perfect Combine with previous techniques for comprehensive understanding

This technique is particularly helpful for speakers of languages with simpler tense systems or different ways of indicating time. Join us next time when Akihiro discovers how focusing on the small words after verbs can dramatically improve his understanding of phrasal verbs and expressions! Thanks for listening to English Listening World. Don't forget to subscribe and practice what you've learned today!