How does it work? The present perfect.

We use the present perfect to talk about

something that happened in the past with a result now (the present).

Examples:

The windows were dirty, now they are clean.

Someone has cleaned the windows. (to clean)

They were at home, now they are not.

They have gone out. (to go)

There were 6 slices of pizza, now there are 5.

Someone has eaten a slice of pizza. (to eat)

The form of the present perfect is:

I / you / we / they have + past participle of the verb

he / she / it has + past participle of the verb

It is used in the following ways in negative and question form sentences:

One of my students recently asked me a great question.

Why do I need to use the present perfect to talk about the past when I can use the past simple?

The present perfect is different to the past simple because the time that something happened doesn't matter. When we use the past simple we add a time statement to the end. Compare these two sets of sentences:

Past simple Present perfect

I went to London last weekend. I have been to London.

They worked in the garden this morning. They have worked in the garden.

He visited Japan last year. He has visited Japan.

They both tell us the same thing only the present perfect doesn't tell us when the event took place.

This is particularly useful to use when asking open questions such as:

Has David arrived?

Have you seen the film?

Have you ever been to Japan?

Have you found your keys?

These are questions for which we don't know the expected answer so we cannot use the past simple question 'when':

When did David arrive? (he might not have arrived yet)

When did you see the film? (you might not have seen the film)

When did you go to Japan? (you might not have been to Japan)

Did you find your keys?

It is also a useful way to answer a question in the negative:

David hasn't arrived, yet.

I haven't seen the film, but I would like to.

I haven't been to Japan, but it is on my list of countries to visit.

I haven't found my keys, yet.

Using words such as yet or but after the negative statement we can add more information to our comment.

The present perfect allows us to carry on a conversation whereas the past simple can close it down.

Let's look at an example:

Past simple

When did David arrive?

He arrived 5 minutes ago.

Present perfect

Has David arrived?

Yes, he has arrived, he's over there talking to Judy.

The present perfect is great to use when you are making small talk with people or you want to find out more information.

In these examples I've used the verbs arrive, see, be, find

Regular verbs such as arrive take an -ed form in the past participle - needed to form the present perfect. David has arrived.

see, be, find are all irregular verbs. Their form changes in the past participle:

see - seen

be - been

find - found

Remember, there are a lot of irregular verbs that we use in everyday English so taking the time to learn them is a good idea.

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