Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[Barbirolli]

Hello, everyone!!
Could you check to see if the dialogue below are correct and natural, please?

A I hear that you're good at English.
B Not now. I've been busy recently and been away from English studying.

[battlecryorsilence]

In your dialogue, person A's statement is both correct and natural. I take it that person B was perhaps doing well in his or her English studies, but has not been studying as much recently and is therefore no longer as proficient in the language as he or she once had been? If that is right, then you might have person B say,
"Not now. I've been busy recently and haven't been able to study English as often as I was studying it before."
To make the dialogue sound like genuine idiomatic spoken English, and thus more natural, person B might say, "as often as I used to", or "as often as I had been", instead of "as often as I was studying it before." Please note, though, that idiomatic English often does not conform to grammatical rules. The phrase "used to", for instance, contains a dangling preposition. So if you are writing this dialogue for a grammar or composition class, you may want to avoid the idiomatic phrase. However, if you are writing a play, or you want to use person B's phrase in casual conversation, the idiomatic phrase is perfectly acceptable.