Present Perfect
The Present Perfect is used to express actions that happened at an indefinite time or that began in the past and continue in the present. This tense is also used when an activity has an effect on the present moment.
Note: later in this article, Preset Perfect will be abbreviated as PP.
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I have been struck by lightning!
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Use
- Actions which happened at an indefinite (unknown) time before now
- Actions in the past which have an effect on the present moment
- Actions which began in the past and continue in the present
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I've eaten 10 apples today!
Click to read about "for" and "since".
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Oil prices have gone up recently.
Form
The structure of PP is not very easy because it requires some pratice to get used to it. To correctly form Present Perfect sentences, you should know these:
- the proper conjugation of the verb "have" (=auxiliary verb) [1]
- Past Participle [2]
[1]
We conjugate the auxialiary verb "to have" the same as we would conjugate the verb "to have".
| Singular form | Plural form | |
|---|---|---|
| First person | I have | We have |
| Second person | You have | You have |
| Third person | He/she/it has | They have |
As you can see, the third person singular (he/she/it has) is irregular. Examples:
- She has never seen my brother
- Neither of my brothers has ever driven a truck
[2]
To correctly form a sentence in the PP, we also need the past participle. You can read a nice article about the past participle here. In short it is the verb from that is used with the perfect tenses.
Same as the past form, the past participle can be either regular or irregular.
The regular verbs are typically formed by adding -ed. Read an article about regular verbs.
| Verb | Past Participle |
|---|---|
| talk | talked |
| explain | explained |
| use | used |
| deliver | delivered |
| include | included |
| achieve | achieved |
| Verb | Past Participle | More conjugation |
|---|---|---|
| be | been | be |
| become | become | become |
| see | seen | see |
| go | gone | go |
| eat | eaten | eat |
| grow | grown | grow |
Declarative sentences:
| Subject | + | Auxiliary verb | + | Past participle |
| I/a dog etc. | has/have | slept/gone etc. |
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| Examples | Use | |
 |
We have already had breakfast | (Use 1) |
|
I have bought new shades | (Use 2) |
|
I have already been to Paris | (Use 1) |
|
John has been a plumber for 2 years | (Use 3) |
|
Someone has just taken my bag! | (Use 1,2) |
|
Jane has never been so angry | (Use 3) |
|
He has been our most serious partner for so long that I can assure you he's a very decent man | (Use 3) |
Questions:
| Auxiliary verb | + | Subject | + | Past participle |
| has/have | I/a dog etc. | slept/gone etc. |
| Examples | Use | |
|
Have you ever seen this program? | (Use 1) |
|
Where has she lived for the past 21 years? | (Use 3) |
|
Have you found the telephone number? | (Use 1,2) |
|
Have you ever been to France? |
(Use 1) |
|
Has anyone taken my bag? | (Use 1,2) |
In sentences with adverbials such as ever, already and yet, Americans may use the Past Simple rather than the Present Perfect. So an American would say:
- Did you go to the post office yet?
And a British man:
- Have you gone to the post office yet?
Negative sentences:
| Subject | + | Auxiliary verb + not | + | Past participle |
| I/a dog etc. | hasn't/haven't | slept/gone etc. |
| Examples | Use | |
|
He hasn't taken any drug for two years | (Use 3) |
|
I haven't met my perfect partner yet | (Use 3) |
|
They haven't contacted you, have they? | (Use 1) |
Comments
I have one question about this tense. Do we use Present Perfect at the time of speaking adn can we use it when we are writing essay for eg. ?
Thank you
well, we cant not use perfect tense while some thing we going....perfect is only used when some work is completed.
I hope you have got you Answer.
thanks
I'm sorry to say that this reply is not accurate.
According to rule 3 on this page you can use perfect with actions that are going on right now: "Actions which began in the past and continue in the present". Therefore the action does not necessarily have to be competed.
"I have lived in Brazil for fifteen years." Normally means that I still live in Brazil.
You might say though that it is important that the action started in the past.
i would like to know about irregular verbs. what is the difference between is gone and has gone and had gone?
when we speak he is gone means (ele se foi ) and he has gone to the mall means ( ele foi ao shopping, e provavelmente continua no shopping ) and he had gone means that (ele foi ) for eg, before i went there my girlfriend had gone away.
I hope you understand.
I don't think "I have been struck by A lightning" is correct...could you change it?
love yr site though!
well done! yes, because struck by a lightning just once, not duration from present.
lightning is also uncountable, meaning we can´t use the article 'a', but we can use 'the'. If you want to specify a quantity for lightning we use the quantifier 'a bolt of lightning'
A bolt of lightning = one instance of lightning
2 bolts of lightning = two instances of lightning
Thanks for a great, simple and easy to use web site. I wish the internet had been available when I was learning English.
hello
thank you for this page which is so useful and cute (because of the cartoons)
it is so cool:)
plaise, I'd like to know what is the difference betwen present perfect and past perfect ?
The cartoon is very cute. I like it! Very interesting!