The Present Perfect Tense is very common in every day tense and is the most common way we use have as an auxiliary verb (see the Present Simple for more…)
In this overview we will explore:
- The form for Present Perfect
- How/ When we use it.
- The 3rd form or Past Participle ….. there are patterns.
- Present Perfect and Past Simple.
- Some other interesting points.
See the chart below for a brief over view of the main uses and errors.
Other important points to remember for Present Perfect
1. The ‘3rd form’ or ‘Past Participle’ ……. So many irregular verbs!
The Present Perfect tense is formed using:
Subject + have/ has + 3rd form (past participle)
I generally refer to the ‘3rd form’, instead of ‘past participle.
Most verbs are regular, however, just like the Past Tense, there are around 100 commonly used verbs in English. So, we must know the 3rd form of these verbs to use the Present Perfect Tense.
It is one of the biggest difficulties for children in lower primary classes, learning the 2nd and 3rd form for each of these verbs and not mixing them up!
As a teacher, and parent, a common example I hear almost every day is …… “I brang it” ……. Because …… ring – rang …. Bring brang? Unfortunately, not!
While it is difficult to remember all of these verbs, there are patterns they follow which can make memorising them a little easier. Rhyming verbs (verbs that sound the same) often fall into the same category. The main categories include:
- All three forms of the verb are the same:
put – put – put I want to put it away. I put it away yesterday. I have put it away
let – let – let I will let you go. I let you do it last week. I have let them go.
- The 2nd and 3rd forms of the verb are the same:
Sell – sell – sell I won’t sell it. I sold it to him. I have already sold it.
Tell – tell – tell I can tell him. I told him earlier. Have you told her yet?
- All three verb forms are different:
Break – broke – broken It will break. I broke it. I’ve broken it!
Speak – spoke – spoken He can speak. He spoke first. We’ve spoken about it.
Note – Often adding n to either the infinitive (taken) or the 2nd form (broken)
Unfortunately, not all the verbs in these categories rhyme as easily as the examples above. However, they can be grouped together.
Study Tip! – First, test your knowledge of the form of these forms and make simple sentences like the ones above and ….. repeat, repeat, repeat …… a lot of things like irregular verbs can be memorised by this kind of ‘brain training’, repetition is key!
See the full list of verbs grouped by spelling/ rhyming below .. try repeating them!
Full list of common irregular verb forms.
2. Present Simple or Past Simple …… They both refer to the past events!
Yes, it’s true. They both refer to past events and it can be difficult to know when to use which tense. The most important things I advise students of for the Present Perfect tense are:
- There are certain times when we really should use the Present Perfect.
- There are times when it really doesn’t matter if we use Present Perfect or Past Simple.
See the chart below for the main differences between these tenses and some examples where, it doesn’t really matter.
| Present Perfect | Past Simple |
| For Life Experiences | Finished Past Actions |
Talking about things we have or have not done in the past. We do not give the time/ when we did it. ——————–>Key words – ever for questions, never instead of not for negatives. ‘I’ve been to London’‘Have you ever visited Egypt?’‘I have never eaten sushi.’ | For finished actions in the past – we do not need to give the time but often do.Often for details of life experiences. Key words – yesterday, last (week), ago, when (did you? I was), earlier. Did you go to the cinema?I went to the park yesterday, I met John. |
| Unfinished situations | Chronological Past Events |
When the event started in the past but is still true, we shouldn’t use Past Simple tense. Key words – How long? For, since I have worked here for ten years. He has been unemployed for 2 months. Note – often we can also use the Present Perfect Continuous for this instead. I have been working here for 10 years. | When telling stories, we will mostly use Past Simple, what happened next. Key words – when, then, before, after(wards), then, in the end I had to walk home yesterday because I missed my bus. I decided to do some shopping before I went home and afterwards, I had a coffee. |
| Note – sometimes it doesn’t matter which tense we use! This is mostly for very recent events, things which just happened, they may have an ‘effect on the present’, and so we would choose Present Perfect. But, if they are not very recent, or don’t really impact the present we might use Past Simple. I’ve lost my keys – I lost my keys Have you finished it? – Did you finish that? I haven’t tried that. – I didn’t try that. | |
3. Other interesting points …… been or gone ….. contractions.
a. Been is used instead of gone when …..
We often use ‘been’ to talk about places we went to in the past, particularly for life experiences. For example:
‘I’ve never been to Canada, have you’?
‘No, I haven’t, but I’ve been the U.S. I went to New York last year with my parents.’
This is because we use been for when we went somewhere and we came back.
We use the 3rd form of ‘go’ (gone) when someone went somewhere and has not returned, and may not return. For example:
‘Have you seen John? I need to speak to him.’
‘Oh, he’s just gone home actually. He just left if you want to try and catch him.’
b. Contractions are very important for Present Perfect.
In every day speech, when we are speaking quite quickly, we do not use the full for of have. The positive and negative sentences are generally contracted, for example:
I’ve – I haven’t You’ve – You haven’t We’ve – We haven’t
He’s – He hasn’t She’s – She hasn’t It’s – It hasn’t
My advice to students on this point is to focus on getting the form correct first, this means that you are always using have with I, You, We and They, and using has with He, She and It. This is very important as it is a very obvious mistake.