Present perfect verb tense in English

In this lesson about the present perfect, you will learn the following:

• The form (affirmative, negative and question form)
• The spelling rules of past participles
• The correct position of adverbs
• The meaning and use of the present perfect
• The differences between the present perfect and the past simple.

Form

affirmative

subject + verb have (in the present simple form) + past participle of the main verb

The present perfect is made up of the subject, followed by the auxiliary verb “have”, followed by the past participle of the main verb:

I  have walked
you have walked
he / she / it  has walked
we have walked
you have walked
they have walked

Spelling rules for the past participle form

Regular verbs
Add -ed to the base form.
wash -> washed
earn-> earned

Regular verbs ending in a silent -e
Add -d to the base form.
change -> changed
lie -> lied

Regular verbs ending in a vowel and -y
Add -ed to the base form
play -> played
stay -> stayed

Regular verbs ending in a consonant and -y
Change the “y” to “i” and add -ed
marry -> married

Regular verb with 1 syllable ending in a consonant + vowel + consonant
Double the final consonant and add -ed
fit -> fitted
stop -> stopped

Regular verb with more than 1 syllable that ends in a consonant + vowel + consonant
Double the final consonant only if the final syllable is stressed and add -ed

prefer -> preferred
regret -> regretted

If the final syllable is not stressed, add -ed
transfer -> transfered

Verbs ending in -l (British English rules)
always double the “l” and add -ed
travel -> travelled
cancel -> cancelled

Verbs ending in -l (American English rules)

Double the final consonant only if the final syllable is stressed and add -ed

If the final syllable is not stressed, add -ed

travel -> traveled
cancel -> canceled

Past participle of irregular verbs

There are no logical rules for irregular verbs. You must simply learn them.

Verb	Past participle
break	broken
buy	bought
choose	chosen
come	come
do	done
drink	drunk
eat	eaten
go	gone
have	had
make	made
run	ran
say	said
see	seen
think	thought

 

Negative present perfect form

subject + “have not” + past participle

I have not worked
you have not worked
he / she / it  has not worked
we have not worked
you have not worked
they have not worked

Contracted negative present perfect form

Method 1

I haven’t worked
you haven’t worked
he / she / it hasn’t worked
we haven’t worked
you haven’t worked
they haven’t worked

Method 1

I’ve not worked
you’ve not worked
he’s / she’s / it’s  not worked
we’ve not worked
you’ve not worked
they’ve not worked

Question form of the present perfect

Have you worked?

verb “have” (in the present simple form) + subject + past participle + “?”

Have I worked?
Have you worked?
Has  he / she / it  worked?
Have we worked?
Have you worked?
Have they worked?

Verb “to be” – present perfect form

The verb “to be” is an important irregular verb and it deserves a separate section.

Affirmative present perfect form

I have been
you have been
he / she / it   has been
we have been
you have been
they have been

Negative present perfect form

I have not been
you have not been
he / she / it   has  not been
we have not been
you have  not been
they have  not been

Question past simple form

Have I been?
Have you been?
Has  he / she / it   been?
Have we been?
Have you been?
Have they been?

Correct position of adverbs with the present perfect

Adverbs: always, only, never, ever, still, just, already

The correct position of these adverbs in an affirmaétive sentence is after the auxiliary verb “have” and before the main verb.

Examples:

We have just arrived in London.
I have only cleaned the bathroom.

For questions, we place the adverb after the subject and before the main verb.

Examples:
Have you ever visited New York?
Has he already left the office?

Use and meaning of the present perfect

What is the present perfect?

The name is confusing! It is in fact a past tense. The events or actions in the past have an effect or connection with the present. To explain the meaning, let’s look at an example:

Mark: “Why is Sarah not playing tennis?”
David: “She has broken her leg.”

The present perfect describes an event in the past (Sarah breaks her leg) to explain the situation in the present (Sarah is not playing tennis.)

David doesn’t need to say exactly WHEN Sarah broke her leg. It is not important. We use the present perfect to describe an action that happens at some moment in the past but it isn’t important to know exactly when it happened. The past action has an effect on the present.

Examples of the present perfect

Mark is sad because his cat has died.

Connection with present: Mark is now sad.
In the above example, it is not important WHEN the cat died. The only thing that is important is that the cat is now dead because that is why Mark is sad now in the present. If we want to know WHEN, we would use the past simple: “When did the cat die?”

“Let’s go to the cinema to watch the Harry Potter film. Have you seen it?”

Connection with present: to decide if you want to go to the cinema.
It is not important if you saw the film yesterday or last week. We only want to know if you have seen it at least once at any time in the past. That is why we use the present perfect tense.

Present perfect in news reports

News reports in the media often use the present perfect at the start of a report to give a general summary. The past simple tense is then used to give more specific information about WHEN something happened.

Example:
The Prime Minister, Theresa May has promised to create more jobs for young people. During yesterday’s conference in London, the Prime Minister promised to create over a thousand new jobs over the next six months for young people leaving school.

Unspecified time – before now

We can use the present perfect with indefinite time adverbs (ever, never, once, before, so far, already, yet, etc)

Have you ever seen an elephant?
I have met him before.
I have never been to New York.

Unspecified time – experience

We can use the present perfect to describe new experience we have gained at an unspecified time in the past.

Examples:
“How does he know how to use this software?”
“He has studied computing.”

“Yes, I have been to London.”

“I have learned to play the piano.”

Progressive change over time

We use the present perfect to describe progressive change that has evolved over a period of time.

Examples:
“Your English has improved.”

Video games have become very popular with young people.

An uncompleted action you are expecting

We use the present perfect to describe an action which we expect to happen in the future but it has not happened. We are still waiting.

Examples:

Mark hasn’t finished his homework yet.

I still haven’t washed the dog.

Several actions at different times

We can use the present perfect to describe several actions at different unspecified times in the past. The actions are complete but more of the same actions are possible in the future.

Examples:

We’ve been to France many times.

“I’ve called him 3 times!”

Duration – from the past until now

Usually we use the present perfect continuous to describe duration. However, for certain types of verbs, we can use the present perfect simple to describe something that started in the past and has continued up until now (the present).

We can only do this with these types of verbs:
1)Verbs which do not have a continuous form (“love”, “hate”, “want”, “be”, “need” etc)
2)Non-continuous uses of Mixed Verbs (“have”, “hear”, “feel”, “see” etc)
3)”live”, “work”, “teach” and “study”

The action or state event is continuing. It is NOT finished.

Examples:

He has loved her for several years.
She has worked at IBM since July.
I have had this car for 2 weeks.

Unfinished time expressions with the present perfect

The present perfect describes an event in the past, but it does not describe exactly when it happened. We can limit the period of the past with unfinished time expressions like: in the last week, this week, today.

Examples:
I have been to London.
I have been to London 4 times in the last month.
I have lost my keys 3 times this week.

“in the last month” does NOT have the same meaning as “last month”
“last month” = the previous month. It is a specific time. (therefore we use the past simple)
“in the last month” = period of time from 1 month ago until now (therefore we use the present perfect)

Present perfect or past simple?

The differences between the present perfect and the past simple:

Present perfect

• Unfinished actions that started in the past and continue to the present: “I have worked at IBM for 3 years.” (I still work there)
• A finished action at an unspecified time with a connection to the present: “Please call an ambulance! I have broken my leg.”
• We use unfinished time expressions (“this week”, “this month”, “in the last week”)

Past simple

• Finished actions: “I worked at IBM for 3 years.” (I no longer work there)
• A finished action at a specific time without a connection to the present: “I broke my leg yesterday. It was terrible!”
• We use finished time expressions (“yesterday”, “last month”, “2 weeks ago”)

We do NOT use the present perfect with a finished time expression:

“I have broken my leg yesterday.”

Other lessons

English prefixes
Past simple tense
When to use capital letters in English
GOING TO – English future tense
Advice for IELTS writing task 1

Video lesson