Present Perfect Tense (Back to basics - Part 5)

Slovenian speakers and, of course, the language itself understand time in three dimensions: present, past, and future. Every action is, therefore, either in progress, already finished or will happen sometime from now. However, there is no grammatical tense in Slovenian when it comes to expressing the connection between the past and the present. Still, English has one that is sometimes hard to understand – it is called the Present Perfect tense. Unlike the past tense, which talks about completed past actions, and the present tense, which describes current actions, the Present Perfect serves as a link between the two. It helps English speakers emphasize how past events still impact the present. This adds depth to the English understanding of time and acknowledges the ongoing influence of the past on the present.

So today, we go over the Present Perfect: a verb tense used to describe actions or states connected to the present. It is often used to talk about past activities or experiences that impact the present moment.

How to Form the Present Perfect

The Present Perfect tense is formed by using the auxiliary verb "have" or "has" followed by the past participle of the main verb. The past participle ends with -ed for regular verbs. The irregular forms, on the other hand, can be found in an Irregular Verbs Table. That's something you'll find at the end of your textbook, somewhere in your dictionary or, of course, online. To make Present Perfect, you'll need to look up the 3^rd form of the particular verb: see-saw-seen.

For example:

I have seen the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
She has finished her homework.
They have lived in this city for five years.

The negative and interrogative forms

To make the negative form of the Present Perfect, we add "not" after the auxiliary verb "have or has":

I have not seen the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
She has not finished her homework.
They have not lived in this city for five years.

These sentences can be rewritten with contractions, which are more natural in the spoken language. But for your essays, stick to the full form.

I haven't seen the Eiffel Tower in Paris.
She hasn't finished her homework.
They haven't lived in this city for five years.

All you have to do to form questions is mix up the word order a bit.

Have you seen the Eiffel Tower in Paris?
Has she finished her homework?
Have they lived in this city for five years?

WH questions

We can also use WH questions with the Present Perfect tense, just like with other tenses. Here are a few examples:

What have you seen in Paris?
How much homework has she finished?
How long have they lived in this city?

Note: When is not a question you can ask with
Present Perfect since When asks for a specific time.
Present Perfect never gives you specific time –
that's the job for Past Simple:

When did she do her homework? At 6.

How Present Perfect connects the past and the present

The Present Perfect tense is used to express various meanings and situations:

1. Completed actions with a present result: When discussing past actions directly relevant to the present, we use the Present Perfect. It emphasizes the result or consequence of the action. For example:

I have lost my keys.

The focus is on the fact that the keys are missing, impacting the present situation.

2. Unspecified time in the past: The Present Perfect is used when we want to talk about actions or experiences that occurred at an unspecified time in the past. We don't mention a specific time or date. For example:

She has seen that movie before.

We don't know when she watched it, but the experience of watching it in the past is relevant to the present moment.

3. Duration from the past until now: We can use the Present Perfect to express actions or states that started in the past and continue up to the present. For example:

They have known each other since childhood.

The emphasis is on the duration of the relationship, which began in the past and is still ongoing.

4. Recent past actions with "just": When we want to talk about actions that happened in the very recent past, we can use the Present Perfect with the adverb "just." For example:

I have just finished my dinner.

The use of "just" indicates that the action happened a short time ago.

It's important to note that the Present Perfect is not used with specific past time expressions, such as "yesterday," "last week," or "in 2010." Instead, it focuses on the connection between the past and the present.

The Present Perfect tense can be challenging for English learners, but with practice and understanding its various uses, you can become more proficient in expressing past actions and experiences that are relevant to the present.

Now, let's test your understanding of the Present Perfect with a quick exercise: