The Present Perfect Tense

The Present Perfect Tense formation

SELF-STUDY MAERIALS FOR UNIT IV

Positive

subject	has/have	past participle
I
You We They	have ‘ve	livedhere for 6 years. Beenteaching for years. Studieda lot this term.
He	has
She	’s

Negative

subject	have not / has not	past participle
I
	have not
You	haven’t
We	’ve not	boughtanything yet.
They		beenteaching for long. Studied a lot this term.
	Has not
She	hasn’t
	’s not

Question

have / has	subject	(ever)	past participle
	I
Have	you		riddena horse?
	We
	they	(ever)	readHarry Potter?
	He		metanyone famous?
Has
	she

The present perfect is a verb form which links the past and present. We use it when we talk about an action or state which started in the past and which continues up to the present time.

One of the functions of the present perfect is to describe finished actions that are important now. I’ve been to Canada fits into this category.

Study the following examples. They belong in this category too:

You have received a letter from the examination authorities. You are smiling because you have opened the letter and have discovered that you have passed the FCE exam.

Your brother has passed his driving test and has just bought a new car. You have decided to ask him for a lift to work every day

We use present perfect with such adverbs as just, already, yet, ever never.

Just – a short time ago

They have just arrived.

Already – before you expected

It’s only nine o’clock and Ann has already gone to bed.

Yet – until now

You can use yet in negative sentences and questions. Yet is usually at the end.

The film hasn’t started yet.

Have Diane and Paul arrived yet?

BBC Learning English – Grammar Challenge

Exercise 1. Ask students to read the sentence and choose the one option a - c which best fits the space.

1. … in Hong Kong since 2004.

a. She lived – Sorry, you need to use the present perfect here.

b. She's lived – Well done, the present perfect here is correct.

c. She's live – Sorry, the main verb 'live' is in the wrong form.

2. I … him for ages.

a. seen – Sorry, you need a part of the auxiliary 'to have' to make the present perfect.

b. haven't saw – Sorry, the main verb 'see' is in the wrong form.

c. haven't seen – Well done, this is correct.

3. She's … the boss for 6 months now.

a. has – Sorry, you need the past participle of a main verb.

b. be – Sorry, that’s not the correct form of the main verb. You need the past participle.

c. been – Well done, that’s the correct form to make the present perfect.

4. We … to France on holiday last year.

a. went – Well done, you need the past simple here as we are talking about ‘last year’ a time which is finished.

b. 've gone – Sorry, you need the past simple here as we are talking about ‘last year’ a time which is finished.

c. go – Sorry, you need the past simple here as we are talking about ‘last year’ a time which is finished.

5. He … had a lot of problems recently.

a. have – Sorry, this is the wrong form of the auxiliary ‘to have’.

b. 's – Well done, this is correct.

c. is – Sorry, this is the wrong auxiliary verb.

6. She … four marathons. Her first one … in 2001 in Amsterdam.

a. has run /has been – Sorry, this is partly correct but you need the present perfect followed by the past simple.

b. ran/was – Sorry, this is partly correct but you need the present perfect followed by the past simple.

c. has run/was – Well done, you need the present perfect followed by the past simple.

Exercise 2. Ask students to look at the information of the Harry Potter writer JK Rowling and to choose the best answer from the options below to complete the sentences.

She (1) __________ born on 31 July 1965.

She (2) __________ 7 Harry Potter books and although she says she won't write any more, lots of her fans hope her seventh one won't be her last.

She (3) __________ as an English Language teacher in Portugal for a short time in the early 90s.

Her books about Harry Potter (4) __________ incredibly successful and so far she (5) __________ more than.500 million from them.

She (6) __________ married twice and has two children – one from each marriage.

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