When students first hear about the Past Perfect Continuous, they are usually told something like this: “It describes a long action that happened before another action in the past.” This explanation sounds logical. It is also incomplete. Past Perfect Continuous is not about “longer past.”It is about visible process before a past reference point. If […]

Most grammar books define Past Perfect like this: “Use Past Perfect for an action that happened before another past action.” Technically correct.Conceptually shallow. Past Perfect is not about “earlier.”It is about priority and background status inside the past. And until you see that distinction, it will always feel mechanical. Past Perfect Is About Past Perspective […]

Many learners reduce Past Continuous to a formula: was / were + verb-ing Technically correct.Conceptually incomplete. Past Continuous is not about grammar structure.It is about background perspective inside the past. And if you misunderstand that, you will misuse it for years. Past Continuous Is About Internal Time Past Simple moves events forward: She opened the […]

Most textbooks reduce Past Simple to one word: Finished. But that explanation is incomplete — and often misleading. Past Simple is not just about something being “over.”It is about something being locked inside a completed time frame. And that distinction changes everything. Past Simple Is About Separation Past Simple describes actions that belong to a […]

When learners finally start feeling confident with Present Perfect, another form appears: have / has been + verb-ing And confusion returns. Is it just a “longer” version of Present Perfect?Is it simply about something happening for a long time?Is it interchangeable? No. Present Perfect Continuous changes the focus completely — not to time, but to […]

Most learners are told a comforting lie very early in their English journey:Present Perfect is a past tense. It isn’t.And this misunderstanding is one of the main reasons people keep mixing Present Perfect, Past Simple, and even Present Simple, no matter how many rules they memorize. This article explains what Present Perfect really is, why […]

Author’s Column by Tymur Levitin Language learners are usually taught that mistakes are grammatical. But one of the biggest shocks for adult students comes later — when they finally build a sentence that is grammatically correct, logically precise, understandable… and native speakers still react in a strange way. Not because they don’t understand. Because they […]

Most learners are taught a simple rule: Present Continuous is used for actions happening now.It sounds logical. It is easy to memorize.And it is fundamentally wrong. This explanation does more harm than good. It creates confusion, blocks fluency, and forces learners to constantly second-guess themselves. Native speakers do not choose Present Continuous because something is […]

One of the most common misconceptions about English is this: “English is easy because it has no cases.” This statement is only half true.English has no visible case endings — but it absolutely has case logic. The difference is not in meaning.The difference is in how meaning is encoded. When a Language Removes Forms, It […]

Author’s Column by Tymur Levitin — Founder, Director, and Senior TeacherLevitin Language School / Start Language School by Tymur LevitinGlobal Learning. Personal Approach. It All Started With a Question Just minutes before writing this, I finished a private lesson with one of my students.He looked at me and said, “So what’s the difference between сломал […]