📅 Grammar B1-1: Present perfect with for / since

The first material of the Fleydo B1 grammar series, and the point where the present perfect stops being about experience and starts measuring time. The opening image is a line drawn from a past moment to now: Maya has had her dog Conker for six years, a sentence that holds the day he arrived and this morning together. The choice between for and since is taught as one question — is the phrase a length you could count, or the moment the period began? — and the choice of tense as another: does the period still touch today? A full form table covers every person with negatives, questions and short answers, the ’s-means-has contraction, and How long…?, the question that owns this grammar, with its two equally true answers. Two worked runs walk whole sentences through the three-question procedure, including since followed by a past-simple clause: since he was nine. The compare-and-verdict pair is the heart of the material — she has lived in Marbury for two years against she lived in Marbury for two years, the same for, a different life — and seven items drill exactly that line. A 125-word tap-and-explain text about Maya’s town, best friend, sister and dog shows open periods, sealed periods and their time phrases working together. Practice runs to thirty-one multiple-choice items in four sets, all explained, plus twelve time phrases to sort into for and since boxes, six real learner errors to repair, and three traps: since with a length, the present simple leaking under a since-period, and the clause after since. Teacher notes give a 45-minute sequence, the ruler-and-pin board move, the calendar rescue for a stuck learner, and Cambridge B1 Preliminary relevance.