Learning English

Students speak about living in the UK

In this photo, you can see Jie, Kinga, Arta, Javier, Melissa and Maryam. They’re all studying English at a college in London and they’ve all lived in the UK for a while. Listen to Melissa, Arta and Maryam. They spoke about coming to the UK.

But who do you think has been here the longest—and who has lived here the shortest time?

Listen to the audio and complete the activity

If you've listened carefully enough you would have heard that Maryam has lived in the UK the longest—for 8 years. Melissa has only lived here for one year and three months—that's the shortest time of the three. Arta said she has lived here since 2012, which is over two years—so she’s in the middle.

To do

In this activity you’ll see some jumbled sentences about all the students. Can you put them in the correct order? And remember that you’ll need to change the verb form from I have to something different.

How did you do? Remember that when we are talking about someone else, we will use he or she in our sentences. This means we have to change the verb have to make the present perfect correctly. Here’s a reminder of the form:

He has lived in London for 3 years.

She has studied at the college for 3 months.

When we are speaking, we often contract the verb has like this:

He’s lived here for 3 years.

She’s studied at the college for 3 months.

Next

You heard three of the students talking about what has happened to them since they came to the UK. In the next activity, you’ll be able to read a bit more about this. What do you think is the most interesting thing that’s happened to them?