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Present Perfect Tense

Explanation

What is the form of Present Perfect Tense?

I / You / We / They	Have + action (in past participle form) -        I have finished my homework.
He / She / It	Has + action (in past participle form) -        My sister has finished her homework.

What is Present Perfect Tense?

Present perfect tense is used to describe:

1.  An action that occurred in the past, without an actual time of when it happened. (Without words like “yesterday”, “xx days ago”, etc.

I have been to Japan once.

My brother has taken the medicine, he is going to bed now.

 

2.  An action that occurred in the past, which continued until now. It is commonly used with words like “for” and “since”.

She has worked in this company for 10 years.

Joyce has learnt the piano since she was five years old.

 

 3.  Past experiences.

I have never played the piano before.

This book is interesting, I have read it before.

How to use Present Perfect Tense?

Here is a timetable of Ben:

Time	Activities
04:30 p.m.	Take the school bus
05:00 p.m.	Piano Lesson
06:00 p.m.	Football Lesson
07:00 p.m.	Go Home

 

 1. It is now 05:00 p.m.

Ben has took the school bus back home, now he is ready to attend the piano lesson.

 

2.  It is now 05:45 p.m.

Ben has finished his piano lesson, he is going to enjoy playing football with his friends during the football lesson.

 

3.  It is now 07:15 p.m.

Ben is having pizza as his dinner, he has completed the football lesson.

 

4. Ben has played football since he was a kid.

 

5. Ben has joined a piano contest. It is an unforgettable experience for him.

 

What is the difference between Present Perfect Tense and Past Perfect Tense?

Example:

08:00 p.m.  Finish homework      ->          09:30 p.m.  Watch TV      ->          10:30 p.m.  Sleep

 

It is now 09:30 p.m.

I have finished my homework already, so I can watch TV now.

This is Present Perfect Tense. I just finished my homework, so I am going to watch TV now.

It is now 10:30 p.m.

I had finished my homework before I sat down to watch TV.

This is Past Perfect Tense. I finished my homework first, then I watched TV, and now I’m going to bed.

• Past Perfect Tense is used to describe an event that happened before a past event, and it usually comes with Simple Past Tense in a sentence.

 

What is the difference between Present Perfect Tense and Simple Present Tense?

	Present Perfect Tense	Simple Past Tense
Form	Subject + Verb (Past Participle)	Subject + Verb (Simple Past Tense)
Time	Describe indefinite time -        I have been a football player for many years.	Emphasising definite time -        I played football with my friends yesterday.
Use	Can express unfinished events. -        We have lived in Taiwan since I was ten.	Express finished events -        We lived in Taiwan before, but moved to Hong Kong now.

Past Participles and Past Tense?

The past participles we used in present perfect tense can sometimes be different from its past tense.

 

Examples:

Base Form	Past Tense	Past Participle
Go	Went	Gone
Eat	Ate	Eaten
Write	Wrote	Written
Know	Knew	Known
Become	Became	Become
Fly	Flew	Flown
Show	Showed	Shown
Give	Gave	Given
Come	Came	Come