Today, I’d like to talk about a special tense in English. A lot of people have problems learning it because it either doesn’t exist in other languages, or the rules are completely different in English.
I love this tense. It’s like having one foot in the present and one foot in the past at the same time. And it’s really not so difficult to understand.
Also, once you’re comfortable with it you’ll sound more natural and you’ll enjoy using it when you speak English.
So I’m going to show you how!
OK. Take a look at this conversation:
You probably noticed that they use the present perfect, right? But why?
What’s the present perfect? Click here. have / has + verb 3 e.g. I have been to Indonesia. She has lived in this house for 10 years.The Present Perfect Tense
We’ll check these sentences later. But first, here’s a little secret about the present perfect: It might look like a lot of different rules, but it’s actually quite simple.
There are three rules and one principle.
Here’s what they are …
The big picture
Here is “the road of time”:
And here we are having a conversation in the present:
In most languages, this is what happens:
Two people are talking about the past. They can talk about things that happened in the past without using any time phrases (e.g. “yesterday,” “2 hours ago,” “when I was in the circus”). That’s because these events are points on the road of time, so they can just look back and see them.
But in English, there’s a big wall in the middle of the road:
What does this mean?
In English, we can’t see into the past. So when one of us is talking about the past, the other person needs to know when it happened.
OK. What’s the problem in this conversation?
This just sounds strange (and not because of the dolphin). Jack and Brian are uncomfortable because they don’t know when he lost his dolphin. The wall is blocking their view of the past.
So he has to tell them:
See! Jack and Brian are much more relaxed now.
That’s why we generally use the past tense with time phrases. Let’s keep Jack and Brian happy.
But what about the present perfect? Well, fortunately, we have a door in the wall:
When the door is open, we can see into the past and we don’t need to use a time phrase.
So what can open the door? Three things: Time, Effect and Action.
We use the present perfect when…
1. TIME
…we say a time that started in the past, and is continuing now.
Here are a few examples:
● Have you seen Ali today?
● I haven’t eaten this morning.
● We’ve seen 9 dolphins this week, and none of them were polite at all.
Interesting extra thing: When we use the classic “Have you ever …?” question (more on this later), we actually mean “Have you ever … in your life?” This is a time that hasn’t finished (because you’re still alive. Hopefully).
2. EFFECT
…the effect of an action in the past is still important now.
Here are a few examples:
● Oh my God! You’ve changed your hair!
● He hasn’t noticed my new tie.
● Has that singer broken all the windows?
Interesting extra thing: “Just,” “yet” and “already” belong to the EFFECT category.
What do “just,” “yet” and “already” mean? Click here “Yet” is for negative sentences and questions. It means that something hasn’t happened but we expect it to happen. e.g. I’m 72 and I haven’t retired yet. “Just” means something happened a very short time ago. e.g. I’ve just finished work. Let’s meet up! “Already” means something happened sooner than expected. e.g. She’s 12 years old and she’s already started university.
3. ACTION
…the action started in the past and is continuing now.
Here are a few examples:
● I haven’t eaten since breakfast.
● She has only lived here for a week.
● We’ve looked at this painting for hours. I still don’t know what it is.
Interesting extra thing: With this use of the present perfect, we have to add “since” + the time that the action started, or “for” + the length of the action until now.
One little detail
For most learners, the first time we meet the present perfect is the classic “Have you ever …?” question. Click here for some examples. Have you ever eaten sushi? Have you ever been to America? Have you ever swum for more than 2 hours?
These are useful and fun. Here’s how it works in a conversation:
So what’s happening here?
1. Nathaniel asks the “Have you ever …?” question.
2. Venus replies in the positive (“Yes, I have.”)
3. Now Nathaniel wants to find out more details. This is when the conversation switches to the past simple.
The present perfect question was about general experience (ever = in your life). There’s no specific time, so the door is open and we use the present perfect.
But when Venus says, “Yes, I have”, they’re now talking about a specific point in time (the time Venus fired a gun). The door is now closed, and we use the past simple.
Action Plan!
Try some of these questions with a friend right now!
- Have you ever been on TV?
- Have you ever travelled without paying for the ticket?
- Have you ever cooked for more than 20 people?
- Have you ever cheated on an exam?
- Have you ever dreamed in English?
24 thoughts on “One simple hack to master the present perfect”
Thank you for this interesting material.
Can you explain the difference between two expressions:
“Have you seen Ali today?”
“Did you see Ali today?”
Which one is more correct?
Hi Vladimir. Glad you like it!
“Have you seen Ali today?” is technically correct because we’re using an unfinished time phrase (“today”).
“Did you see Ali today?” is technically incorrect for the same reason.
HOWEVER — we break the rules all the time and most native speakers won’t even consider these sentences that different. Especially at the end of the day, when we can argue that the day’s finished.
Hope that helps!
we say have you because in past simple we use: s+have/has+v(past participle)
that what i think
When you use present perfect ” have you seen Ali”? where no need to mention timestamp (today). So you could say “have you seen Ali?” or You can say “Did you see Ali today?”
Great ! Your explanation is aparenly clear. Anybody can understand what the Present Perfect is like and the Way it is used.Thanks a lot!
Thanks Gnanedra. I’m glad you found it useful (and that you understood it clearly). Like I said, I love the present perfect and once you understand the logic to it, it’s kind of easy to understand! Keep up the good work!
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Thanks Meriem. Glad you liked it!
Well, further explanation exists (don’t they always) and here it is.
Life is hideously unfair etc and we are not perfect, but it’s good to be alive and not to bury anyone. That’s why we ask:
“How many books has Stephen Fry written?”, but
“How many books did Roald Dahl write?”
Another from ‘The Great Game’:
SHERLOCK: … Past tense, did you notice?
JOHN: Sorry, what?
S: I referred to her husband in the past tense. She joined in. Bit premature — they’ve only just found the car.
J: You think she murdered her husband?
S: Definitely not. That’s not a mistake a murderer would make.
An absolute killer example for my liking or it’s just perfect.
In any case, thank you — your blog is perfect.
Oh yeah — the dead/alive thing is a great way of illustrating how the present perfect is about some sort of continuation.
Also — that Sherlock spiel illustrates it so well.
There was also a scene in “Lost” where two characters play a game called “I never…” They basically said something like “I never wore pink” or something like that and the other had to guess whether it was true or not.
The interesting thing here, of course, is the fact that they use the past simple. Is that because on the island they feel that their “previous” lives are closed off to them … in the past? Or is it just that they’re American?
Technically they’re speaking like the zombies or the walking dead in the afterlife, but they are just doomed, it seems to me. I haven’t seen ‘Lost’ yet.
I think using the past simple like that is a sort of casual American thing.
I really wish you would do a past perfect article because I also don’t understand it very much and it is so easy and clear when you say it your way so please do a past perfect one
Thanks for the suggestion.
I actually haven’t written a proper grammar post for some time, so yes! I will! A past perfect post is now on the list.
Thanks! 🙂
Very nice explanation!
I think is one of the best I’ve ever read!The wall and the door are so suggestive!
Thanks so much Maria!
I’m glad you liked it and I hope it works! 🙂
This is the best than all those grammar books and grammar webs explanations I had read. You are a great teacher, not all smart professors are good with explanations. Good Job sir. I really need to enhance my grammar, thanks to this.
Thanks so much, Nikholith, for the awesome feedback!
I try to make these posts as engaging and clear as possible and I’m glad you found it so useful.
Keep reading! 🙂
I read this article with interest.
In the article, you say “In English, we can’t see into the past.”.
Would you please explain that in more detail? I can’t quite understand it.
Suppose a volcano erupted a long, long time ago. No one knows when it erupted.
Then people cannot talk about this event.
Hi Isamu,
Thanks for commenting.
What I meant was that when we think about the past in English, we need to imagine that there’s a big wall between us and the past blocking our view.
HOWEVER, we can see into the past, beyond the wall, in two ways.
1. We know when the event occurred. It’s either mentioned or understood by both the speaker and listener. In this case, use the past simple.
2. There’s something connecting the past and present somehow. Perhaps the action hasn’t finsihed, perhaps there’s still some sort of effect continuing, or perhaps the time frame we’re talking about hasn’t finished. In this case, use the present perfect.
I hope that helps!
Cheers!
Gabriel you are a lifesaver, thank you so much, all these old fashioned sources of the learning english grammar directed on the countless repeating of sample sentences are far away from the logical step-by-step explanation with a common sense included.
Thanks Laroslav.
Sometimes we just need a different way of looking at it.
Glad it helped! 🙂
thank you for this page. now I see the present perfect 😉