Hi Greg! Thank you for this test. It was easy for me. I made only 1 mistake on Q.13, because I didn't read the question correctly (arrived instead of arrives). I also noticed that in question 21 it is: A. They were walking, but in your answers it is: D. They were walking. Same for question 38 - She is studying. The correct answer is A, not B. You just mixed the letters. 😀
A real eye opener very good .I,m a male aged 71 of no fixed education yet I got up to C2 ok and scored 45 in tenses.A very refreshing use of the internet. Very well presented in a clear and unambiguous fashion Great .
@English With Greg The question 21 - They were walking. The correct answer is A, not D. The question 38 - She is studying. The correct answer is A, not B.
In contrast to many others as well as having the necessary knowledge he's also got a huge talent for explaining and is a greatly honest guy like a worthy British knight. I wish him best and am very grateful. His diligence is worthy of a greatest reward.
No. 30 B. She will go to the party tomorrow. Is this sentence wrong? If the decision of going to the party tomorrow is made at the moment of speaking, isn't it also correct?
Great test. My score is 44 out of 50. There are two inconsistencies in the video where the letter in the answers differs from the letter order in the options list: The question #21 - They were walking. The correct answer is A (9:49), but your letter D before the same right answer wrongly shown (10:00). The question #38 - She is studying. The correct answer is A (18:08), but your letter B before the same right answer wrongly shown (18:21).
I recently started watching your videos. My level is probably a little higher than the beginner. 26 out of 50! But I am still very happy. Thanks to your positive and benevolence, I started to succeed. 😊
Question N.11 In my humble opinion Past Simple is better than Present Perfect because now I'm at home so the action is finished and is not related anymore with the Present.
A word of caution, there are circumstances where more than one answer is possible. E.g. 8 :- Generally: "At school, she reeds books every day." Future: "When she goes on holiday, she will reed books every day" seems fine to me. Although I expect a native would say "read a book" in both cases. (We are probably too lazy to sound two Ss on consecutive words) There are lots of similar instances.
Hi Greg, it's always a plesure to do homework wuth you. I was a bit scared at the begining of the test - so many questions!!..... Now I am happy to tell you that I made 2 mistakes quiz n. 13 and n. 41 - this means that your lessons over the years have been useful..... thank you for all your efforts - bye bye Roberta
Well done, I got 50/50. I am really happy because I have been studying English for about five years, and today, in addition to getting everything right, I also got all the tenses right. I would like to thank Greg because I have already done this test twice. I got 9 and then 5 wrong and now none, and also before, I had already watched all the videos in this playlist: Crazy, confusing English tenses. So thank you very much Greg.
Good exercise and good fun doing it. 41 out of 50 without stopping the clock. I still need to improve. That's one of the reasons why I keep learning English ! Thanks
I've got 50 out of 50. The questions were too easy, except for Q48: I chose "finished" as the only past-tense option, but shouldn't it have been Past Perfect?
I have a question about Q33. Isn't it a scheduled future event that is fixed like a timetable? Why can't we use "go" here? "The train leaves at 11 am", "I start my new job on Monday".
Thank you for the test. I did four mistakes. I struggle with the preposition before - when a perfect tense is necessary and when past simple. Also, I did mistakes with the future perfect tense. Thank you once more and all the best.
French learner here. I have made one single mistake on question 14. My level is B2+. My main problem is I'm not able to speak fluently in a Real conversation without thinkikg about the tenses. As you can see, I have the grasp of all tenses and their rules.. Do you think your Quck Fix Training could bring me the missing thing I need to be fluent ? Because I'm currently considering registering to it. If you could give me an answer, I'll be so glad 😊 thank you for your hardworking !❤
I am from the US, and of French ancestry. My father is fluent in French and Bengali, but I still struggle with the French language despite having studied it for 2 years in college. French is much more logical and systematic and I can read it fairly well but I have difficulty understanding and speaking it. I'm really glad that English is my native tounge, as it is so full of inconsistencies I would never been able to master it otherwise. I really admire non native speakers who become fluent in English.
Hey Greg! I don't know what exactly my mistakes were, I only know that I had two of them wrong, so thank you very much for making this kind of exercises, They are very useful for all of us who want to learn, improve, and as you say... take our English level one step further, see you around!
@@deborahsemaan1341 so, should I add an S to the word KIND, right? I'm looking forward to reading your answer. If you don't mind, write down how that little part of the writing should be.
Hello Greg! I answered correctly 43 questions! Thank you for your great videos. I’m living in Braga and last month I visited Santiago. I wish I had met you there!
hi Greg, Question 21 is A-were walking but you put the answer as D which is, will be, but when the correct answer is shown it should show A, not D When this is not the correct answer. Im not sure if it is just me who has picked up on it, or if it has been mentioned before just thought I would let you know so you can edit the video thank you.
5th question: C is not incorrect. It’s widely used. Or am I wrong? I’ve used it before, have heard natives, including judges, using it in court, and now am perplexed. I can only assume we are all wrong, being that the verb - to move is in the past tense; therefore HAD been living is the grammatically correct way to say it? Please help
Hello Mr. Greg! I really appreciate your efford on this special video! Well, i got 39/50 right questions (probably upper B2+ level), that's make me happy and put a great smile in my face😄. Anyway, thanks Mr. Greg very much for this useful exam.👍 From Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam⭐🟥
Hi Greg I did quite well I'm from Rio Brazil I had 2 wrong awnser but I will learn it with as we go thanks to help us your videos are very helpful to all those who loves English like my self I really appreciate it
I'm a native English speaker. I love the language. Despite peoples misconception, I am dyslexic and I love words. Its so nice to hear someone speak clearly.
ปีที่แล้ว +1
Q12 A mistype. The correct is «A. were walking» but you have chosen «D. were walking».
Hello! I'm not a native speaker but I lived in the UK some while ago. My english is (was) quite proficient but I got some wrong answers in the test. I think some answers given as right are actually wrong (2 or 3). My result was 42.
I got 49 right out of 50, as I'm a C2 level English speaker (I discovered this on your test to see what level of English someone had. That was interesting for me to find out that I'm a level 2 English speaker).
Thank you Greg for the 50 questions. I lost counting. However, I don't think I did too bad as a whole! It was a good lesson. Thank you for the hard work you went through in order to enable you presenting such lesson.
Hi Greg ! Thank you so much for this test ! I answered correctly 48 questions! I really appreciate it but I need to keep on keeping my English and improve it more ! Thank you so much
@@lfcgirl5093 Hello again. I probably figured it out but still not sure if I did. According to rules it must be "had finished" for sure. But I asked my friends (native speakers) and they said just "finished". Moreover, I watched few videos "PastSimple PastPerfect comparison" and the like and they made me more confused. Here's just the difference between "rules" and "how people talk". "Had finished" is the right answer according to rules, "finished" - is how people in real life would say.
10:01 correct answer is "A. were walking" and not "D. were walking" as on the screen. A typo I guess. So far so good. My one mistake at 13., rather logical, not grammatical. How can I know if it's going to be one hour or more when the bus finally arrives. It is still the future. It floored me a bit. Also 18:22, correct is "A. is studying" and not "B. is studying" (btw the only thing I hate about Greg is his habitual pronunciation of study as ['stʊdi] or [ˈstədi] instead of [ˈstʌdi] as Oxford L.D. says, he replaces most of [ʌ]'s with u -- he says they speak like that over there, well, I don't like it 🙂 I made 3 mistakes altogether, the last one due to only tiredness and lack of concentration, but I was misled at 33. where the exact point in time was given, but I wasn't sure if it needed to be in the future. If there were an adverbial frequency phrase ("three times")... Great job, Greg, it was long though, wasn't it.
I'm British. There is no "correct" accent or pronunciation in the UK. There are over 100 different regional accents. The way he says "studied" is perfectly correct and normal, both formally and informally. Listen to Brian Cox the scientist speak, his speech and accent is not "Wrong" and is 100% acceptable. He doesn't have an Oxford English accent.
Great teacher !,it is really fascinating test.I enjoyed it very much.thanks a lot.It is helpful test.you are helping us a lot even through i am a new to your channel and i scored 45/50.
-5 (45 out of 50). Far from being a native speaker, I only went after how it rings. Have to learn how to separate between for example played and was playing. When to use what.
50/50 to my own surprise! I was ready to fall into the usual: I'll-never-be-good-at-English depression for not getting the 44 of 50 right. But obviously my English is fine. Thank you for the video and for the confidence boost!
Greg , ur content is valuable thanks. Do the phonetics in ipl apply to learning spoken French as well? Are the sounds the same ? I know u learnt French too.
Hi!! I have a question about question 7 hehe, why is it. they will be travelling during the summer holidays, so they won't be able to attend the garden party, instead of they have been travelling during the summer holidays, so they won't be able to attend the garden party? Thanks
I think it's because the main tense used is the future. They have been travelling suggest that the action has started in the past and still continuing at the present Time. I have been travelling for two hours when he phones me to cancel our appointment.
"Already" is the one of the key word used in present perfect tense.. We never used this word in simple past.. So we can't say I already ate lunch... So that we have to say "I have already eaten lunch"
49 out of 50, I thought I'd gotten rusty with time ? From 17 y.o. to 49 recently... (psss : I noticed 2 mistakes in the video for the letters didn't correspond to the answer.) I have to admit I really did enjoy that :-) It was fun ! Many thanks !
Well , I was doing pretty well , when in the last questions , I've a hard time if I should use " have" or not in the sentences in the past .... I was using have and I got the questions wrong
Hello Mr. Greg! I really appreciate your efford on this special video! Well, i got 43/50 right questions this time (this is second time) Anyway, thanks Mr. Greg very much for this useful exam.👍 From Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam⭐🟥goodvibes
Hi Greg! Thank you for this test. It was easy for me. I made only 1 mistake on Q.13, because I didn't read the question correctly (arrived instead of arrives). I also noticed that in question 21 it is: A. They were walking, but in your answers it is: D. They were walking. Same for question 38 - She is studying. The correct answer is A, not B. You just mixed the letters. 😀
Ha, ha, I've made the same mistake, Q. 13. I was not attentive either. You have a good eye for tiny details!
Same mistake for the same reason here.
Same here. I read arrived. So, answered B.
I am joining the club , since I have the same reason … ! I only missed one !
test check
A real eye opener very good .I,m a male aged 71 of no fixed education yet I got up to C2 ok and scored 45 in tenses.A very refreshing use of the internet. Very well presented in a clear and unambiguous fashion Great .
@English With Greg
The question 21 - They were walking. The correct answer is A, not D.
The question 38 - She is studying. The correct answer is A, not B.
Right, there’s a mistyping in the slide
And there's also typo at Question 24. Should be "since *this* morning".
46 out of 50.Thanks to you Greg.I have been learning English Tenses for a month.
In contrast to many others as well as having the necessary knowledge he's also got a huge talent for explaining and is a greatly honest guy like a worthy British knight. I wish him best and am very grateful. His diligence is worthy of a greatest reward.
No. 30 B. She will go to the party tomorrow. Is this sentence wrong?
If the decision of going to the party tomorrow is made at the moment of speaking, isn't it also correct?
I also think there are two correct answers.
Will go (still deciding) / is going (decided)
Great test. My score is 44 out of 50.
There are two inconsistencies in the video where the letter in the answers differs from the letter order in the options list:
The question #21 - They were walking. The correct answer is A (9:49), but your letter D before the same right answer wrongly shown (10:00).
The question #38 - She is studying. The correct answer is A (18:08), but your letter B before the same right answer wrongly shown (18:21).
I recently started watching your videos. My level is probably a little higher than the beginner. 26 out of 50! But I am still very happy. Thanks to your positive and benevolence, I started to succeed. 😊
Question N.11 In my humble opinion Past Simple is better than Present Perfect because now I'm at home so the action is finished and is not related anymore with the Present.
Hey Greg, I've scored 47 out of 50. I thank you once again for your time.
A word of caution, there are circumstances where more than one answer is possible. E.g. 8 :-
Generally: "At school, she reeds books every day."
Future: "When she goes on holiday, she will reed books every day" seems fine to me. Although I expect a native would say "read a book" in both cases. (We are probably too lazy to sound two Ss on consecutive words)
There are lots of similar instances.
Yes I'm a native English speaker, but some of these have 2 possible answers that natives often use. Such as Question 12. She Was working.
48 ) ans should have been "had visited"
49*
Hi Greg, it's always a plesure to do homework wuth you. I was a bit scared at the begining of the test - so many questions!!..... Now I am happy to tell you that I made 2 mistakes quiz n. 13 and n. 41 - this means that your lessons over the years have been useful..... thank you for all your efforts - bye bye Roberta
Well done, I got 50/50. I am really happy because I have been studying English for about five years, and today, in addition to getting everything right, I also got all the tenses right. I would like to thank Greg because I have already done this test twice. I got 9 and then 5 wrong and now none, and also before, I had already watched all the videos in this playlist: Crazy, confusing English tenses. So thank you very much Greg.
Good exercise and good fun doing it. 41 out of 50 without stopping the clock. I still need to improve. That's one of the reasons why I keep learning English ! Thanks
40/50. You explained the tenses best among all my past teachers. Thanks. Greg!
A1-9
A2-10
B1-8
B2-8
C1-8
C2-7
I've got 50 out of 50. The questions were too easy, except for Q48: I chose "finished" as the only past-tense option, but shouldn't it have been Past Perfect?
I think the same. Meaby it was a mistake. Nobody is perfect.
Greg, why nr. 41 is "had been working when......" and nr. 50 "I was cooking when......" I would have used was for both of them
Thank you for the test, Greg! It was easy, but interesting :)
I have a question about Q33. Isn't it a scheduled future event that is fixed like a timetable? Why can't we use "go" here? "The train leaves at 11 am", "I start my new job on Monday".
Thanks for this video🙌. I have correctly answered 44 questions.
I did the same!
Thank you for the test. I did four mistakes. I struggle with the preposition before - when a perfect tense is necessary and when past simple. Also, I did mistakes with the future perfect tense. Thank you once more and all the best.
French learner here. I have made one single mistake on question 14. My level is B2+.
My main problem is I'm not able to speak fluently in a Real conversation without thinkikg about the tenses. As you can see, I have the grasp of all tenses and their rules..
Do you think your Quck Fix Training could bring me the missing thing I need to be fluent ? Because I'm currently considering registering to it.
If you could give me an answer, I'll be so glad 😊 thank you for your hardworking !❤
I am from the US, and of French ancestry. My father is fluent in French and Bengali, but I still struggle with the French language despite having studied it for 2 years in college. French is much more logical and systematic and I can read it fairly well but I have difficulty understanding and speaking it. I'm really glad that English is my native tounge, as it is so full of inconsistencies I would never been able to master it otherwise. I really admire non native speakers who become fluent in English.
Hey Greg! I don't know what exactly my mistakes were, I only know that I had two of them wrong, so thank you very much for making this kind of exercises, They are very useful for all of us who want to learn, improve, and as you say... take our English level one step further, see you around!
These exercises, not this exercises
@@deborahsemaan1341 so, should I add an S to the word KIND, right? I'm looking forward to reading your answer.
If you don't mind, write down how that little part of the writing should be.
Hello Greg! I answered correctly 43 questions! Thank you for your great videos. I’m living in Braga and last month I visited Santiago. I wish I had met you there!
hi Greg,
Question 21 is A-were walking but you put the answer as D which is, will be, but when the correct answer is shown it should show A, not D When this is not the correct answer. Im not sure if it is just me who has picked up on it, or if it has been mentioned before just thought I would let you know so you can edit the video thank you.
49 out of 50, Thanks. Sometimes will form was also possible.
5th question: C is not incorrect. It’s widely used. Or am I wrong? I’ve used it before, have heard natives, including judges, using it in court, and now am perplexed. I can only assume we are all wrong, being that the verb - to move is in the past tense; therefore HAD been living is the grammatically correct way to say it? Please help
Hello Mr. Greg! I really appreciate your efford on this special video!
Well, i got 39/50 right questions (probably upper B2+ level), that's make me happy and put a great smile in my face😄.
Anyway, thanks Mr. Greg very much for this useful exam.👍
From Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam⭐🟥
Question 38: it is A not B
Hi Greg. My score was 42 out of 50. Not too bad. Thank you for your lesson.
Hi Greg I did quite well I'm from Rio Brazil I had 2 wrong awnser but I will learn it with as we go thanks to help us your videos are very helpful to all those who loves English like my self I really appreciate it
thank you very much for the video!
46 out 50.
I'm a native English speaker. I love the language. Despite peoples misconception, I am dyslexic and I love words. Its so nice to hear someone speak clearly.
Q12 A mistype. The correct is «A. were walking» but you have chosen «D. were walking».
Same thing Q38
I made mistakes some times but it was easy.i'm learning enligh by myself.i liked this video.i have been learning english for 2 years.
Thanks for the test!! I surprised myself at how well I did!!
Hello,you have mistakes in letters in the answers,e.eg.Q21,but there are more,it is confusing then.You have to check and correct them.
Reminds me of studying for my French tests. Had to get out the good old 501 French Verbs book. French has 17 tenses to confuse you!
Hello! I'm not a native speaker but I lived in the UK some while ago. My english is (was) quite proficient but I got some wrong answers in the test. I think some answers given as right are actually wrong (2 or 3). My result was 42.
I got 49 right out of 50, as I'm a C2 level English speaker (I discovered this on your test to see what level of English someone had. That was interesting for me to find out that I'm a level 2 English speaker).
Thank you Greg for the 50 questions. I lost counting. However, I don't think I did too bad as a whole!
It was a good lesson. Thank you for the hard work you went through in order to enable you presenting such lesson.
Hi, Greg! I answered correctly 44 questions. Thank you for the test!
18:13 a) is studying is the answer I know. but for say, if I opt for the answer b) will study, what is wrong with it?
Because she is studying right now, that's why they say Shhh to be quiet. You don't need to Shhh if she will study later.
Number 23 should be "will have been living" and "yesterday evening" is awkward... I think it should be " last night* this is a good quiz ❤
50 out of 50. I also, like some other students, noticed the mixed letters. Thank you Greg.
How to use and what will be the expression of negative interrogation?
Hello
I got 46 out of 50 on the quiz.
THANK YOU SO MUCH !
Have a nice evening !
please, explain why is “visited” in question 49, but not “had visited”. he visited “before” 1942
I made only one mistake! Thank you, Greg! Keep up the good work!
Thanks for the test. It wasn't difficult. There is a misprint in Q.21: the letter of the right answer should be A
I missed 2. I switched my choice when I should’ve stuck with my original choice. Why don’t journalists write correctly?
It wasn't difficult at all actually. I made no mistakes.
FYI, there are a few that you could use up to two responses that BOTH would be grammatically correct.
Hi Greg ! Thank you so much for this test ! I answered correctly 48 questions! I really appreciate it but I need to keep on keeping my English and improve it more ! Thank you so much
lie, don't u use translate?, never get 48 correct.
46/50, but is #48 correct? They finished before it started? Or they had finished before it started?
I made the same mistake. If you'll find the explanation, could you please write it to me?
@@SaveliiIliukhin still don't know....
@@lfcgirl5093 That's sad. Thanks you answered thou. I'll try to find the answer and share it with you if I'll have succeeded.
@@SaveliiIliukhin Thanks in advance. It'd be really good to know.
@@lfcgirl5093 Hello again. I probably figured it out but still not sure if I did. According to rules it must be "had finished" for sure. But I asked my friends (native speakers) and they said just "finished".
Moreover, I watched few videos "PastSimple PastPerfect comparison" and the like and they made me more confused.
Here's just the difference between "rules" and "how people talk".
"Had finished" is the right answer according to rules, "finished" - is how people in real life would say.
10:01 correct answer is "A. were walking" and not "D. were walking" as on the screen. A typo I guess.
So far so good. My one mistake at 13., rather logical, not grammatical. How can I know if it's going to be one hour or more when the bus finally arrives. It is still the future. It floored me a bit.
Also 18:22, correct is "A. is studying" and not "B. is studying" (btw the only thing I hate about Greg is his habitual pronunciation of study as ['stʊdi] or [ˈstədi] instead of [ˈstʌdi] as Oxford L.D. says, he replaces most of [ʌ]'s with u -- he says they speak like that over there, well, I don't like it 🙂
I made 3 mistakes altogether, the last one due to only tiredness and lack of concentration, but I was misled at 33. where the exact point in time was given, but I wasn't sure if it needed to be in the future. If there were an adverbial frequency phrase ("three times")...
Great job, Greg, it was long though, wasn't it.
I'm British. There is no "correct" accent or pronunciation in the UK. There are over 100 different regional accents. The way he says "studied" is perfectly correct and normal, both formally and informally. Listen to Brian Cox the scientist speak, his speech and accent is not "Wrong" and is 100% acceptable. He doesn't have an Oxford English accent.
In question 48 it would be better to say They had finished .... instead of finished... Right?
I also didn't understand it
25/50 I have a huge challenge with that test.Thank you
Great teacher !,it is really fascinating test.I enjoyed it very much.thanks a lot.It is helpful test.you are helping us a lot even through i am a new to your channel and i scored 45/50.
-5 (45 out of 50). Far from being a native speaker, I only went after how it rings. Have to learn how to separate between for example played and was playing. When to use what.
47 corrects. I often thought that two answers would work fine, just had to pick the one that sounded best. Thank you for the test.
I have got 42 out of 50. You are appreciated ..@Greg
I got 5 wrong anwers! I enjoyed a lot this quiz since it was a little tricky. 💪🏼😎. Thanks a lot Greg.
Less than 1sec. But I have a natural ability-given to me by God. Math is another story. In my 50’s it became easier. Thank you. This is fun!!!😉😊❤️
50/50, although I almost made a mistake in Q48.
50/50 to my own surprise!
I was ready to fall into the usual: I'll-never-be-good-at-English depression for not getting the 44 of 50 right.
But obviously my English is fine. Thank you for the video and for the confidence boost!
42 out of 50
Thank you for this test. It helped me a lot
Hi Greg, my score was 42 out of 50.
Thank you for the test. It was very easy for me. Native lèvel.
71 years of age
Hi Greg! My score is 7 wrong and 43 correct answers.
Greg, thnx a lot. Good test. ...But just one misprint - N38 = A - is studying.
Can you explain, why this answer is true, from what depends on?
Greg , ur content is valuable thanks.
Do the phonetics in ipl apply to learning spoken French as well?
Are the sounds the same ? I know u learnt French too.
Hi!! I have a question about question 7 hehe, why is it. they will be travelling during the summer holidays, so they won't be able to attend the garden party, instead of they have been travelling during the summer holidays, so they won't be able to attend the garden party?
Thanks
I think it's because the main tense used is the future.
They have been travelling suggest that the action has started in the past and still continuing at the present Time.
I have been travelling for two hours when he phones me to cancel our appointment.
Can anybody explain question 15? What is the difference between A and B?
"Already" is the one of the key word used in present perfect tense.. We never used this word in simple past.. So we can't say I already ate lunch... So that we have to say "I have already eaten lunch"
I got 43 out of 50! I'm very pleased!
Native Danish here...50/50, wasn't that hard, but I have always been hooked on tenses :)
Hi..I am interested to join .but I will leave to Jordan next month so how can we manage without wasting time thanks
valuable videos, thank you
49 out of 50, I thought I'd gotten rusty with time ? From 17 y.o. to 49 recently... (psss : I noticed 2 mistakes in the video for the letters didn't correspond to the answer.) I have to admit I really did enjoy that :-) It was fun ! Many thanks !
46 оut of 50. A bit confused in the future tenses.
On question nr 21 the answer was A but came up as D 😲 again in question nr 38, the answer is A but comes up as B.
in question 23, could I use "Has been living" instead of "has lived"? If so, what would be the difference?
Yes, both are fine in the context. However, for a long term situation like in the sentence, native speakers prefer the present perfect.
Thank you sir for good information.
For Question 12 many native speakers would also say C. she was working.
Ok greg,thanks for being there for all the students,I AM English teacher in Perú,I scored 45/50.
38/50 But I have watched ur video about tenses. Because if I wouldn't, I will maybe get less than 20.:)
46 of 50
Greg, you are a star! Thanks a bunch for all your hard work. I loved this exercise and answered all the sentences correctly.
45
Thank you greg you are awesome... ❤
My score 45/50. Thank you for the lesson.
I really enjoyed this test! I got 3 wrong, but I think it's not bad for a German!
49/50, I thank you teacher!
No mistakes!😊
Well , I was doing pretty well , when in the last questions , I've a hard time if I should use " have" or not in the sentences in the past .... I was using have and I got the questions wrong
Hello Mr. Greg! I really appreciate your efford on this special video!
Well, i got 43/50 right questions this time (this is second time)
Anyway, thanks Mr. Greg very much for this useful exam.👍
From Ho Chi Minh city, Vietnam⭐🟥goodvibes
I got them all😅 my training has finally paid off