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| 8-G) Present Perfect |
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(Ireland) | UNIT 8 lesson G |
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This tense is used to talk about the past. Here you can learn how to use it and how it is different from the simple past tense.
Watch this video as a presentation (try to understand something if you can) and then read the explanations and watch the other videos.
You can also read explanations which come with interactive activities attached:
1- Present Perfect: uses
2- Present Perfect vs Simple Past
3- Present Perfect Continuous
To talk about the past we can use the simple past tense (in a previous lesson) or we can use the present perfect. Here, we will see the present perfect tense.
FORM
To make this tense we put HAVE + Past Participle
The past participle of regular verbs is formed by adding -ED to the verb (the same as the past form).
work 
worked
live lived
- I have lived here for 4 years
- You have worked a lot today
For the third person singular we use HAS
- He has touched me in the eye!
--- negative ---
- I haven't visited Rome, but I want to
- She hasn't phoned me yet
-- interrogative --
- Have you eaten spaghetti before?
- Has he arrived now?
In spoken English we usually use contractions:
- He's been my friend since school (he has been)
- You haven't worked as a teacher before
Irregular verbs
You know now that irregular verbs have three different forms. To make the present perfect tense we use the third form:
give - gave - given
- Laura has given me a present for my birthday.
eat - ate - eaten
- I've never eaten paella
drive - drove - driven
- Have you ever driven a Ferrari? (ever = some time)
be - was/were - been
- He has been my friend since we were children.
USE
At an elementary level it is not very important if you know when to use the simple past and when to use the present perfect, but there is one thing important to distinguish one tense from the other:
1- If you can answer the question WHEN?, use the simple past
- I went to Paris in 2001 (WHEN? in 2001)
- I learnt Italian when I was living in Rome (WHEN? when I was living in Rome)
2- If you can't answer the question WHEN?, use the present perfect
- I've bought a new car (WHEN? we don't know and he didn't say)
- I've been to Brazil (WHEN? we don't know)
A very common use of the present perfect is to talk about personal experience:
- I've lived in Paris and in Berlin
- Have you ever visited the Vatican City? (ever = some time)
| Irregular verbs (20 verbs) | ||||||
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| Irregular verbs (20 verbs) | ||||||
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| Present Perfect Continuous | ||||||
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| Present Perfect: uses | ||||||
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| Present Perfect: special uses | ||||||
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1- Present perfect: use
2- Have you ever...?
3- Still & Anymore (explanations & exercises)
THESE ARE LINKS TO VIDEOS FROM OTHER SECTIONS OF OUR SITE:
4- Present perfect Tense 1 (theory and practice)
5- Present Perfect Tense 2 (practice)
More videos from this lesson
