The Speech Draft with Three Marked Parts
Your classmate Haru is writing a short speech for an English camp. He shows you this draft: 'I have joined the baseball club two years ago. I lent a glove from my friend, so I could practice. Now I am belonging to the club and I look forward to see you at the camp.' Your teacher has marked three parts: 'have joined ... ago,' 'lent ... from,' and 'am belonging.' She asks the class to choose the two most important corrections for the camp speech and to explain them in simple English. Haru says, 'But 'have joined' sounds more advanced than 'joined,' so it should be better.' Another student says, 'Lend and borrow are the same, so it doesn't matter.' The speech will be read aloud to students from Australia, so clarity and correctness matter. You have two minutes to explain.
1. Correct 'I have joined the baseball club two years ago' and explain why the time expression decides the tense.
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Write 'I joined the baseball club two years ago.' The phrase 'two years ago' names a finished past time. The present perfect ('have joined') links a past event to the present and cannot be used with a definite past time like 'ago.' Haru thinks the longer form sounds more advanced, but tense choice is not about sounding advanced; it is about the time marker. A quick test: if the sentence answers 'When?' with a finished time (ago, last year, yesterday), use the simple past.
2. Correct 'I lent a glove from my friend' and explain the direction of lend and borrow.
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If Haru received the glove, write 'I borrowed a glove from my friend.' 'Borrow' means to receive and use something for a time; 'lend' means to give something to someone for a time. The preposition 'from' shows the source, so it fits 'borrowed ... from.' If Haru was the giver, the sentence would be 'I lent a glove to my friend' or 'I lent my friend a glove.' The test is the direction of the object: the receiver borrows, the giver lends. The other student's idea that they are the same would reverse the meaning.
3. Correct 'I am belonging' and 'look forward to see.' Give one short rule for each.
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'Belong' describes a state, not an action in progress, so use the simple present: 'I belong to the club.' 'Look forward to' is followed by a noun or an -ing form, so use 'I look forward to seeing you.' These are verb-pattern errors, not vocabulary errors. In a short speech, the simple correct form is safer than a long form you cannot control. Reading the sentence aloud can help you hear 'to see' after 'to,' which is a useful warning sign.