Present Perfect

The present perfect is formed from the present tense of the verb have and the past participle of a verb: The present perfect continuous is formed with have/has.
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Present perfect suggests the process is not complete and more actions are possible. When we use the present perfect it means that something has happened at some point in our lives before now.

Present Perfect

Remember, the exact time the action happened is not important. Sometimes, we want to limit the time we are looking in for an experience. We can do this with expressions such as: It is not considered a specific time, so it requires present perfect. With non-continuous verbs and non-continuous uses of mixed verbs , we use the present perfect to show that something started in the past and has continued up until now.

Although the above use of present perfect is normally limited to non-continuous verbs and non-continuous uses of mixed verbs, the words "live," "work," "teach," and "study" are sometimes used in this way even though they are NOT non-continuous verbs. The examples below show the placement for grammar adverbs such as: Menu Verb Tense Intro.

Past Perfect Past Perfect Cont. Used to Would Always Future in the Past. I have seen that movie twenty times. I think I have met him once before.


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There have been many earthquakes in California. People have traveled to the Moon. People have not traveled to Mars. Have you read the book yet? Nobody has ever climbed that mountain. Has there ever been a war in the United States? Yes, there has been a war in the United States. I have been to France. This sentence means that you have had the experience of being in France.

Maybe you have been there once, or several times. I have been to France three times. You can add the number of times at the end of the sentence. I have never been to France.

Present Perfect Tense Examples

This sentence means that you have not had the experience of going to France. You can find a list of the past participle of irregular verbs here. One example of this tense is: Some other forms of this tense are:. There are many different situations where the present perfect tense can be used.

It can be used in the following ways:. There are times when you cannot use the present perfect tense.

Present Perfect Tense Examples

For example, you cannot use it with specific expressions of time that have already finished, such as last year, that month, when I was a baby, etc. Examples of using present perfect in talking about events that happened in the recent past but the effect of the recent event is still felt in the present include:. The present perfect in English is used chiefly for completed past actions or events when it is understood that it is the present result of the events that is focused upon, rather than the moment of completion.

When a past time frame a point of time in the past, or period of time which ended in the past is specified for the event, explicitly or implicitly, the simple past is used rather than the present perfect.


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The tense may be said to be a sort of mixture of present and past. It always implies a strong connection with the present and is used chiefly in conversations, letters, newspapers and TV and radio reports. It can also be used for ongoing or habitual situations continuing up to the present time generally not completed, but the present time may be the moment of completion. That usage describes for how long or since when something has been the case, normally based on time expressions with "for" or "since" such as for two years, since Then, the present perfect continuous form is often used, if a continuing action is being described.

Modern German has lost its perfect aspect in the present tense. The present perfect form is often called in German the "conversational past" while the simple past is often called the "narrative past".

Present Perfect Uses

French has no present perfect aspect. However, it has a grammatical form that is constructed in the same way as is the present perfect in English, Spanish, and Portuguese by using a conjugated form of usually avoir "to have" plus a past participle. The French simple past form, which also conveys perfective aspect, is analogous to the German simple past in that it has been largely displaced by the compound past and relegated to narrative usage.

The Spanish present perfect form conveys a true perfect aspect. Standard Spanish is like modern English in that haber is always the auxiliary regardless of the reflexive voice and regardless of the verb in question:. Spanish differs from French, German, and English in that its have word, haber , serves only as auxiliary in the modern language; it does not denote possession, which is handled by the verb tener. In some forms of Spanish, such as the Rio Platense Spanish spoken in Argentina and Uruguay, the present perfect is rarely used: In Castilian Spanish , however, the present perfect is normal when talking about events that occur "today".

With no context, listeners from Spain would assume that the latter occurred yesterday or a long time ago. What did you say? I couldn't hear you. The Portuguese present perfect form conveys a true perfect aspect.