Present Perfect Archives - Learn English the Smart Way

May 10, 2019May 10, 2019

Present Perfect Problems?

Eight years ago, if you had asked me the question: ‘What is the present perfect tense?’ I wouldn’t have been able to answer you. Now I can tell you it’s a tense in English that tells you that something happened in the past and it is still relevant now. Wow! That was easy 😉 at least, it is after seven years of teaching English!

Go more in depth with my FREE ebook – Easy Guide to the Present Perfect

Of course, I’m not alone in that as a native English speaker I didn’t know what it was. Recently I interviewed my family and friends for my new video course. I asked them a) What is the present perfect tense? and b) When do we use the present perfect? You might be surprised to find out that my father was the only one who was able to answer yes and explain how to use it. He has studied many languages in his life so he has a good understanding of it.

Is the Present Perfect Difficult for Everyone?

For native speakers of the romance languages, the present perfect isn’t so much of a problem as it also exists in French, Spanish etc. But if you are from a Slavic country like the Czech Republic for example then it can be a bit of a struggle. So just what is the present perfect tense? Read on and I’ll give you a basic overview.

What is the present perfect tense?

To boil it down (as we say to get to the main point) it tells you about something that happened in the past and has some consequence now. Something happened and it’s still relevant at this moment in time. You may have noticed that I have used it already in this article. That is because it’s rather difficult to explain without using it. I am using it because the article isn’t completed yet. I haven’t finished writing it yet. How do you recognize it when you are reading? It’s made like this…

How the Present Perfect is made

Pronoun + have/has + verb Past Participle

“I have seen…”

“He hasn’t played…”

In questions

Have/has + pronoun + verb Past Participle

“Have you heard…”

Look at the dialogue below. The first, short conversation uses only the past simple. You can see that person b needs to ask a second question to fully understand what person a is saying. In the second shorter conversation person b doesn’t need to ask another question because person a used the PrP to explain the situation. Person b understands that person a still has a broken leg right now.

Conversation 1.

a) “I broke my leg”

b) “When?”

a) “I did it three years ago but it’s ok now.”

Conversation 2.

a) “I’ve broken my leg!”

b) “Does it hurt?”

When to use the Present Perfect

Well. simply, there are five situations when you want to use the present perfect simple. I’ll tell you what they are here and if you want to go more in depth, I wrote an ebook about it. You can get it for free by going here: Easy Guide to the Present Perfect

Situation 1.

For life experiences – things that you did in your life. I have driven a double decker bus.

Situation 2.

Unfinished time words – When we say this morning, this week or today. I have drunk three cups of coffee today.

Situation 3.

Things with a present result – This is when something happens and you comment on it immediately before the situation changes. I have dropped my keys.

Situation 4.

New information – Think about the way the news is read in English – ‘There has been an accident.’

Situation 5.

Unfinished actions – When the thing we did is repeated and we know we are going to do it again. I have played football since I was a boy.

When you get the Easy Guide to the Present Perfect you will also get an email mini course to help you better understand the tense. The course includes a free video lesson from the full video course (available soon) and an online quiz to test your knowledge at the end of the course.

So what is the present perfect tense? I hope that now you have a little better understanding and perhaps you would like to learn how to use it properly in your speech and writing. If so, you know what to do.

See you next time,

Richard.

March 6, 2019April 25, 2019

What is the Present Perfect Tense?

Go more in depth with my FREE ebook – Easy Guide to the Present Perfect

Is the Present Perfect Difficult for Everyone?

What is the present perfect tense?

How the Present Perfect is made

Pronoun + have/has + verb Past Participle

“I have seen…”

“He hasn’t played…”

In questions

Have/has + pronoun + verb Past Participle

“Have you heard…”

Conversation 1.

a) “I broke my leg”

b) “When?”

a) “I did it three years ago but it’s ok now.”

Conversation 2.

a) “I’ve broken my leg!”

b) “Does it hurt?”

When to use the Present Perfect

Situation 1.

For life experiences – things that you did in your life. I have driven a double decker bus.

Situation 2.

Unfinished time words – When we say this morning, this week or today. I have drunk three cups of coffee today.

Situation 3.

Things with a present result – This is when something happens and you comment on it immediately before the situation changes. I have dropped my keys.

Situation 4.

New information – Think about the way the news is read in English – ‘There has been an accident.’

Situation 5.

Unfinished actions – When the thing we did is repeated and we know we are going to do it again. I have played football since I was a boy.

See you next time,

Richard.

January 4, 2017December 12, 2018

A Perfect Future? The Future Perfect Tense in English

I originally wrote this post last year but I have updated it a little and you may have missed it anyway, so, here goes. This article is about the Future Perfect Tense in English.

Last year I wrote about new year’s resolutions so I won’t repeat myself here. Today I thought I’d tell you about my general plans for this year and talk to you about the seldom used (by you!) ‘future perfect’ tense.

Music

So I’ll start with music and this year Guns ‘n’ Roses will play in Prague. I am really looking forward to seeing them as I have been a fan of theirs since I was a teenager. They are playing at Letnany airfield on July 4th (U.S. independence day). (update – I didn’t actually get to this concert but I did go to see the Dire Straits Experience in Lucerna Veklý Sal, a brilliant gig I must say.)

As I write I have almost completed my first video course with a lot of useful information that I know will help you immediately improve your English and put a smile on your face. (this English video course is now available here) I am already excited about making the next one for you so let me know below what you’d like help with.

Winter Sports

In February my family and I are going on our first proper winter holiday together. Radka can ski but I have two left feet so I will at long last learn how to snowboard. As a teenager, whilst listening to GNR, I skateboarded, so, I believe it will be easier for me than skiing. I should have transferable skills! (update – this was not true and I struggled for two days trying to learn how to move the snowboard where I wanted it to go and yes, I had a lot of trouble trying to get on the ski lift . However, by the end of the week I was going down the piste/ski slope pretty quickly and confidently)

gardening-fork-and-trowel When the snow clears and the weather warms up, we will plant vegetables as we do every year; lettuce, tomatoes, courgettes, peppers, chillis, carrots, parsnips, onions to name a few. We are also planning on buying more hens and increasing our egg production.

So what of this future perfect tense? What is it?

Well, it’s the tense we use to describe a situation in the future when we are imagining that it has already happened. If you know how to use the present perfect then you can imagine that you are using it in the future.

If you don’t know how to use the present perfect then get my free Easy Guide to the Present Perfect here. Send me an email and I’ll send you the guide.

I’ve just written about some of the things I will do this new year. If I imagine that it is the end of the year and I have done all of these things, I could then say to you now, that, by the end of the year, I will have learnt to snowboard, I will have been to see Guns ‘n’ Roses, I will have planted a lot of vegetables and I will have produced more video courses to help all my Czech and Slovak friends with their English.

How to Form the Future Perfect Tense in English

The future perfect is will + have + past particple.

When I am 50, I will have lived for 50 years.

By the end of January I will have finished my video course.

If Sparta win the football league this season, they will have won 37 titles in their history.

I have too much still to do, so I won’t have completed it by next Friday.

Will you have arrived before I get there?

When you get to the end of this blog post you will have read it all.

What will you have done by the end of this year? Let me know in the comments below. Next week I have a treat for you… I will be writing to you in Czech ! Well, my own version of Czech anyway. Remember, if you think this post can help a friend then please forward them a link and if it has helped you then please tell me by leaving me a comment below.

December 14, 2016December 12, 2018

Goodbye 2016 Present Perfect

It has been a long time since I last posted and it’s now almost the end of the year. I’ll tell you all about my usual Christmas in the U.K. in my next post but today we are going to focus on the last twelve months and that means using the present perfect; Arrggghhh! Oh No!

Get a free copy of my Easy Guide to the Present Perfect.

This year, what have we done? What have we achieved? Where have we been? Have we enjoyed it? Yes, they are all present perfect questions, because this year is still this year, 2016, it has (is) not finished.

I am looking back at my new year’s resolutions from January and my plan for 2016 to see if I was successful (by my own standards). Have I been running once a week? (present perfect continuous). Have I been more organized? Have I finished writing that book yet?

running legs

Well, the running has been successful for me. I started running just once a week but quickly increased to three then four times a week and by the end of February I was running almost every day. I really can’t believe that just by setting the simply target of one run per week I was able to be motivated enough to increase the frequency so quickly.

For a vocabulary list to accompany this post click here.

I decided to set a new goal of running in a 10km race and completing it in 40 mins as I am 40 years old now and 40 at 40 seemed like a good target and not so easy to achieve. In early November I ran in a race in Kladno and finished in 40:45.

Being organized? Well, that was a different story. I started the year well (as everyone does with new year’s resolutions) but by the summer I had abandoned (past perfect!) my organizational plan and fallen back into the old routine. Writing plans in my diary really did help to keep me on track and next year I promise I will come into the modern age by using the calendar app. on my phone. I have always preferred the old fashioned paper version.

The book is on hold for the moment as I decided to change tack (a nautical term Petr K) and turn the manuscript into a video script. The result is a video course that will be available at the end of January and will help you with many of the confusing things about English such as “Is it ‘make’ or ‘do mistakes’?”, “Everybody is or everybody are?”, “Do I use listen or hear here?”.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgCHjnJLVa4[/embedyt]

Sadly the calendar and the ‘text me a question” ideas have been shelved (present perfecr passive) for the moment. However, I will put a team together over the next year to make these and other useful things available to you to help with your English.

Overall, I have to say I am very happy with my year, what about you?. I definitely feel fitter and therefore have more energy. I have seen my baby daughter grow up so quickly that although she is only just over one year old, she is already walking (running) and seems to understand both Czech and English. My older daughter has made me a very proud father by learning how to read a map when orienteering and has climbed to the top of a HUGE climbing wall in Kladno.

So what were your goals for 2016? Have you achieved them? Have you been successful by your own definition? Have you enjoyed 2016? I’d love to know as we say goodbye to 2016.

(Jana, have you started to make money by doing things you enjoy? Ivana, have you got your Christmas crackers yet? Richard, have you started to go to bed earlier? Blahos, have you enjoyed your first term at university? )

Bye for now,

Richard.

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