In ‘present perfect 1‘ we talked about ‘have you ever….?’ questions.
In ‘present perfect 2‘ we talking about ‘finished time references’ and ‘unfinished time references and how they relate to the present perfect and past simple.
Now we want to add some other situations when the present perfect can be used.
We can use the present perfect when giving new information or updates.
When giving new information or updates to somebody you can use the present perfect. Usually this information is recent and the person listening doesn’t know the new information or the update.
Example: Imagine a controller and pilot speaking in a non-routine situation. The pilot has a medical situation on board and is talking to the controller.
Pilot: We have requested a doctor on board and she has checked the passenger. The passenger has a heart problem and the doctor has given him some medication.
All of these present perfect verb forms give new information or are updates for the controller about the situation.
Another situation when we can use the present perfect is when an action has a connection to now.
If an the action happened in the past, you use the present perfect to indicate that the effect exists in the present. So if you cut (past simple) your finger in the past maybe it’s fine now.
However, if you’ve cut (present perfect) your finger it suggests that maybe you are bleeding or that there is still a present effect of the cut (it could be painful).
These two uses – giving new information or updates and an action has a connection to now – don’t have to be separate. It’s possible for something to be new information and have a connection to now. Indeed, that’s quite common.
Tip: Don’t worry about trying to separate giving new information or updates and an action has a connection to now. If you think you action relates to one or both of these you’ll use the present perfect.
In fact, it’s possible for an action to happen in an ‘unfinished time reference‘ (present perfect 2), to be ‘new information‘ and ‘to have a connection to now‘, but we don’t have to worry about that, we just use the present perfect.
Check out the diagram below for more information and examples. Try to write some examples of your own.
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In ‘Present perfect 1’ (click here), we talked about a specific situation where you can use the present perfect, to ask ‘have you ever …?’ questions. This time we want to talk about positive statements and also to compare the present perfect with the past simple.
To compare these two tenses it’s necessary to think about two time references: finished time and unfinished time.
When we think about the time reference ‘yesterday’, it’s clear that ‘yesterday’ is finished. Similarly, ‘last week’, ‘last month’ and ‘last year’ are also finished.
Tip: With ‘finished time’ references use the past simple.
In contrast to that, with ‘unfinished time’ references such as ‘this week’, ‘this year’, ‘this month’ etc… it’s clear that they aren’t finished.
Tip: With ‘unfinished time’ references use use the present perfect.
In some situations the time of day will determine if you should use the past simple or present perfect. In the morning for example the time reference ‘this morning’ is unfinished so you use the present perfect with it.
In the afternoon the time reference ‘this morning’ is finished so you should use the past simple in that situation. Check out the diagram below for more information, write some examples of your own and read them out loud to help you remember them.
Tip: Understanding the difference between ‘finished time references’ and ‘unfinished time references’ will help you a lot to use the present perfect correctly.
Very often we begin with a present perfect sentence and then use the past simple, then maybe the present simple and then something else. We don’t use the present perfect in isolation, we use it with other common tenses.
Let’s imagine you are talking to a friend on Wednesday.
Oh man…I’ve flown a lot this week (unfinished time). I flew ten hours on Monday (finished time) and twelve hours on Tuesday (finished time) and now I’m really tired.
As we can see in the example above, we use a mix of tenses together to talk about different time references.
Tip: In these situations you need to know your time reference before you select your verb and tense even though the time reference is usually at the end of the sentence.
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The present perfect is a common tense but is often confused because it’s used in a different way in other languages. It’s also confused in English because it’s used in a few different ways.
First we’ll focus on one situation when it’s used and talk about other situations in other posts.
One common use of the present perfect is to ask ‘have you ever ….?’ questions. These questions relate to the life of the person.
eg Have you ever visited China? This question relates to any time in your life.
Form: Have / has + subject + every + past participle (main verb)…
Example: Have you every flown a twin-engine plane?
To answer this question we usually start with;
And after this we can continue with other tenses.
eg Yes I have been to China. (start with present perfect)
I went there five years ago. (add past simple verb form to talk about finished past actions)
I had a great time and visited a lot of wonderful places. (more finished past actions)
I’m going to visit there again in the future for sure! (talk about a future plan)
So we started with a present perfect verb form, then some past simple forms, then a ‘going to future’ verb form. Many other options are possible but what it important to remember is that with ‘have you ever…?’ questions, we usually begin with ‘yes I have….’ or ‘no I haven’t…’ and go from there.
Look at the diagram below for a summary of this.
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