PRESENT PERFECT TENSE - in 3 simple steps

Added: 2026-05-19

[00:00:00]In today's lesson, we are going to look at the present perfect tense in three simple steps. That's all you need for today. I'm going to give you lots of examples and real life situations.

[00:00:16]My name's Arnell. Are you ready?

[00:00:20]Grammar basics. I'll start with the formation. subject have or has plus the past participle.

[00:00:31]What's the past participle? Verb number three, go, went, gone. Gone is my past participle.

[00:00:40]Walk, walked, walked. Walked is my past participle.

[00:00:46]Many times we just say verb three.

[00:00:49]That's simple. I have walked. You have walked. Let's change the verb.

[00:00:57]He has eaten. She has eaten.

[00:01:03]It has sunk. We have sunk. They have sunk. Sink is an irregular verb. It means something goes down in water. Like this boat here. It's an irregular verb.

[00:01:19]Sink. Sank. Sunk.

[00:01:22]How do we form the negative? It's easy.

[00:01:26]Just add not.

[00:01:29]I have not failed. You have not failed.

[00:01:33]He, she, it has not failed.

[00:01:37]Let's sound natural and contract.

[00:01:41]We haven't failed. They haven't failed.

[00:01:47]When we are speaking, we often just contract.

[00:01:52]Question form. Have has subject past participle verb three.

[00:01:59]Have I failed?

[00:02:01]Have you failed? Has he, she, it failed?

[00:02:06]Have we failed? Have they failed?

[00:02:11]I have four sentences here. Let's practice that grammar formation. First one, Bill and Evelyn have gone home.

[00:02:21]Bill and Evelyn have not haven't gone home. Have they Have they gone home?

[00:02:29]Yes, we can say have Bill and Evelyn gone home, but I'm just being lazy and using they. I want you to complete the next three sentences. Pause the lesson to do this.

[00:02:48]Okay. Tim has forgotten my birthday.

[00:02:52]Tim hasn't forgotten my birthday.

[00:02:56]Has Tim forgotten my birthday?

[00:03:00]It's been 3 weeks. It hasn't been 3 weeks. Has it been three weeks?

[00:03:08]I've quit.

[00:03:10]I haven't quit.

[00:03:12]Have I quit? In this last example, we don't usually ask questions about ourselves. It would be more natural to say, "Have you quit?"

[00:03:24]Okay, grammatical structures done. Now, when do we use the present perfect?

[00:03:32]Step one, past life experience.

[00:03:37]Imagine this hat is your life from the moment you were born until now. Everything you have or have not done is in this hat. Let's take a look.

[00:03:53]I've been to Germany.

[00:03:58]I have never been to South America.

[00:04:01]I've read the Harry Potter books.

[00:04:05]I haven't watched the movies.

[00:04:09]I have tripped and fallen in public.

[00:04:13]I haven't cried in public. Never.

[00:04:17]The present perfect is used to speak about past life experiences.

[00:04:24]Do we care about when? No. Do we mention the specific time? I have been to Germany in 2024.

[00:04:35]No.

[00:04:36]If the present perfect were a person, she'd be miss.

[00:04:43]Show off means you tell everyone about all the great things in your life. You tell them or you show them.

[00:04:53]I've been to over 30 countries. How many countries have you been to?

[00:04:58]I've met the king of England. I've never been late in my life.

[00:05:05]Mishov is the present perfect.

[00:05:07]Specifically, step one, because we only care about experiences, we often ask this question. Have you ever? Verb three. Have you ever? Ever means in your life. Remember that hat?

[00:05:25]Have you ever dot dot dot? Here are six experiences.

[00:05:32]I want you to think I have or I have not. For example, have you ever sent a message to the wrong person? Yes, I have. Stop. You can see we don't need to say I have sent. Yes, I have sent. If it's already clear, pause the lesson and answer each question. Yes, I have or no, I haven't.

[00:06:02]Step two, a completed recent past action that impacts the present. What does impact mean? Result or effect. For example, if you put an ice cream cone out in the sun, what happens? Well, it melts. There's an effect. That's the result. I have the past and the present.

[00:06:27]Recent. What does recent mean? Recent means close to the present and it depends on the situation.

[00:06:36]If you bought a house last year, that's recent.

[00:06:40]But if you made this sandwich last year, that's very, very old.

[00:06:47]In the recent past, a customer has asked for a refund by email.

[00:06:54]Why is this important now? Well, the customer is waiting and we need to take action.

[00:07:01]The past action here, the present perfect is kind of like a magnet. You have a magnet in the past and you can still feel its power in the present.

[00:07:15]In the recent past, their favorite team has won. Now, everyone is celebrating.

[00:07:23]The past action impacts the present.

[00:07:27]That past to present connection can be difficult to feel. But here's a little trick.

[00:07:34]Remove the past action and ask, "Will the present action still exist?" In this case, no. If their favorite team hadn't won, they wouldn't be celebrating. Now you can see there's a connection to the present.

[00:07:52]In the recent past, our car has broken down. Breakdown means stop working. We are usually speaking about cars and machines.

[00:08:03]How does this impact the present? We can't drive to work and we need to pay someone to fix it. Let's do that trick.

[00:08:12]If our car hadn't broken down, would we have a problem now?

[00:08:17]Nope.

[00:08:19]Let's do another one.

[00:08:21]Grace is late and she hasn't messaged me. Now I am annoyed and I'm still waiting.

[00:08:29]I've repeated recent a few times now.

[00:08:32]Recent. Recent. Recent. This is really important for step two.

[00:08:38]Imagine having a conversation with someone who doesn't understand this.

[00:08:45]We have bought a house. Oh my god.

[00:08:49]Congratulations 10 years ago. What?

[00:08:56]I have lost my job.

[00:09:00]Oh, I'm really sorry to hear that.

[00:09:04]In 2008 during the financial crash, Ellen has not called me back.

[00:09:18]Maybe she hasn't checked her phone.

[00:09:21]No, I called her in 2022. She's checked her phone.

[00:09:29]Here are the many conversations.

[00:09:32]First, when a past action is so far in the past, it's unnatural to connect it to the present using the present perfect, it doesn't sound good.

[00:09:42]Remember, you need that magnet. If it's too far away, you don't feel its power.

[00:09:48]Secondly, remember earlier I said, do we care about when?

[00:09:55]No. Do we mention the specific time? I have been to Germany in 2024.

[00:10:03]No, with the present perfect, we don't mention a finished time in the past. We only care about its impact.

[00:10:12]So, if we want to give a specific time in the past, what do we use? The past simple.

[00:10:19]I called her in 2022 is a best sentence here.

[00:10:25]So, common mistake. Yesterday I have joined a gym. We have a specific time, so we need the past simple. Yesterday I joined a gym.

[00:10:37]Claire has come over to my house a few nights ago. We have a specific time. A few nights ago. Claire came over in January. Dennis hasn't passed his exam. In January, Dennis didn't pass his exam. Past simple. Do you want the notes for today's lesson? Join Gravotion, my fast growing platform where grammar, vocabulary, and emotion meet. Download the notes for today's lesson, plus hundreds of other PDFs ready to use.

[00:11:16]You'll also get access to my complete grammar course road map, so you'll never wonder, "How do I learn grammar? Where do I start? And the best part, the community. Join and connect with English learners from all around the world just like you. Write gravos in the comments and I'll personally send you a link to join. Let's get back to the lesson. Step two, in my opinion, is a reason why the present perfect is such a difficult tense. Here are the sentences from earlier.

[00:11:52]All of these are correct.

[00:11:55]But speakers of American English use the past simple more in these situations.

[00:12:04]Their favorite team has won. Their favorite team won. Past simple is also common and correct.

[00:12:12]Grace is late and she hasn't messaged me. She didn't message me.

[00:12:18]Our car has broken down. Our car broke down.

[00:12:23]So, you might be thinking, why? Why? How do I know when to use the past simple or present perfect? What about that past to present connection? What about the magnet?

[00:12:36]Here's a general guideline.

[00:12:38]General impacts. Both the present perfect and past simple are possible.

[00:12:44]Would you like a muffin?

[00:12:46]No thanks, I've already had one. No thanks, I already had one. Both are fine.

[00:12:54]But if you really want to emphasize the present result, the present perfect is more common.

[00:13:03]My parents have decided to sell their house. I can't believe I'm going to lose my childhood home. Here the speaker is focusing more on the present, the current impact. So step two can be difficult because it's not about right or wrong. It's about meaning and focus.

[00:13:25]Tenses are emotional.

[00:13:28]Step three, last step. Something started in the past and is still true now. For step three, we often use verbs that show long-term situations.

[00:13:42]have, be, live, work.

[00:13:47]I've lived in England since 2011.

[00:13:50]Am I still living in England? Yes. Will I continue to live in England? Yes.

[00:13:57]Christina has been my best friend since I graduated from college. Is Christina still my best friend? Yep.

[00:14:06]Larry has had the top score for 10 months. Does he still have the top score? Yes.

[00:14:13]How long have you worked here?

[00:14:16]I've been an employee here for almost 9 years.

[00:14:21]With all of these examples, the situation will probably continue into the future. But that's not really what's important. We don't really care about that. We are just focusing on up to now.

[00:14:36]And you can see with the present perfect, we often use for or since.

[00:14:41]Let's take a look. For answers, how long? What's the duration? Since answers starting when? When did this start? For how long? For 5 hours? For 20 minutes?

[00:14:56]For a couple of years?

[00:14:59]When did this start? Since 2020? Since March? since my last birthday.

[00:15:06]I've lived here for 15 years. I've lived here since 2011. Both mean the same thing.

[00:15:17]Okay, I'm going to review all three steps so you can really compare them.

[00:15:22]Step one, past life experience. Step two, a recent past action impacts the present. Step three, something started in the past and is still true. Now, one I've seen the Northern Lights. They were incredible. What an experience.

[00:15:43]Do you have a band-aid? I've just cut myself. I just cut myself also works.

[00:15:51]They've had that car since the 1970s.

[00:15:55]Wow.

[00:15:57]Let's do another set.

[00:16:00]Yeah, I built a website. I've done that before.

[00:16:04]Two, I've built a website. Can you take a look at it? I'm not sure if it looks good or not. Is it user friendly?

[00:16:14]I've built websites since the early 2000s. I am very experienced.

[00:16:20]You can see we can use the same idea, but the feeling changes depending on the context.

[00:16:27]I want to do a final review. We are going to watch a couple of clips from an interview with Zenaia. I'll link the full interview below if you want to watch all of it. Before we begin, in the first question, the interviewer says his plays. He is talking about Shakespeare's plays. And a play is a performance on stage like Romeo and Juliet.

[00:16:54]>> A house manager there since I was like 2 years old.

[00:16:56]>> How many of his plays have you seen?

[00:16:58]>> Like all of them several times. Who's your favorite character in all of Shakespeare?

[00:17:02]>> Best.

[00:17:02]>> Yeah, I know, right? For all your fans who have requested this.

[00:17:04]>> Okay.

[00:17:05]>> What message would you like to send them right now?

[00:17:09]>> I don't know. I think I would just say um I would just say thank you, you know, because A Song for you by Donnie Hway.

[00:17:15]>> What's the best concert you've seen this year?

[00:17:17]>> Haven't been to a concert this year cuz I've been so busy, but we all know Beyonce has the best concert. How many of Shakespeare's plays have you seen?

[00:17:25]Step one, past life experiences in her life. How many times when is not important for all your fans who have requested this past action fans requested this interview present result. Now Zenaia is doing this interview.

[00:17:48]Yes, the past simple for all of your fans who requested this is also okay, but we can really see that past to present emphasis.

[00:17:59]What's the best concert you've seen this year? I haven't been to a concert this year because I've been so busy. This example is great because we can see a question and negative too. Something started in the past and is still true now. This year isn't finished, so she hasn't been to a concert because she's been busy.

[00:18:25]Both situations are still true. Now in real life, of course, native speakers don't say h step one, step two, or step three. It's just natural and it will also become natural for you the more you do in English. It will. Thank you so much for watching and I'll see you very soon. Bye.