\u00a0Learn from my client\u2019s mistake\u2026
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Recently a client of mine lost his job<\/strong>. Well, he didn’t really, but when he was talking about his work, he left out a word w<\/strong>hich made him unemployed. <\/p>\n\n\n\n He said this: <\/p>\n\n\n\n ‘I love my company. I worked<\/strong> there for 3 years.’<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you say ‘I worked’, this means that you NO LONGER work there. Y<\/strong>ou’ve lost your job, found another one, or retired. <\/p>\n\n\n\n What he meant was:<\/p>\n\n\n\n ‘I love my company. I’ve worked<\/strong> there for 3 years.’<\/p>\n\n\n\n We use ‘have worked’ when we are still working there.<\/strong> You could also say ‘have been working’ as an option here, although that does not work with all verbs. (You can’t say, for example, ‘I’ve been knowing him for several years’. I mean, you CAN say that, but people will look at you funny.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n The message of the day is this: <\/p>\n\n\n\n If you are talking about an action that is finished, over, history, you don’t use ‘have’ or ‘has’ before the form of the verb. (This is quite different to Dutch, which is why so many people make this mistake.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n Here are some examples, taken from my own life:<\/p>\n\n\n\n