You’re an English as an additional language learner and you’ve been struggling to master some verb tenses in English. You feel some of them are impossible for you to understand. You’ve always felt that the present perfect tense in English is especially difficult to learn. You have almost given up learning it. But you’ve found this article. Don’t be discouraged anymore. You’ll finally master the present perfect tense in English right now! Keep reading.
The present perfect tense in English is formed by the auxiliary verb have and the past participle form of the main verb.
The auxiliary verb have is used in the present tense (have or has, according to its subject).
The past participle form of the main verb can be formed in two different ways.
The first one is by adding -ed to regular verbs (for example: watched, played, cooked, called, talked, opened, etc.).
The second is formed by irregular forms. This means you have to be familiar with and memorize these past participles. They appear in the third column of lists of irregular verbs in English. Examples are: gone, slept, said, caught, been, seen, drunk, run, etc.
Above you can see how to form affirmative sentences in the present perfect. Below you can see how to change these into negative and interrogative sentences (questions).
Negative sentences
To form negative sentences in the present perfect tense in English, add not between the auxiliary and the main verb.
SUBJECT
VERB (PRESENT PERFECT)
COMPLEMENT
AUXILIARY VERB
“NOT”
MAIN VERB
I
have
not
been
to São Paulo three times.
You
have
not
studied
a lot.
He/she/it
has
not
called
me.
We
have
not
waited
for the letter.
They
have
not
run
for about an hour.
Interrogative sentences (questions)
To form interrogative sentences (questions) in the present perfect tense in English, invert the order of the subject and the auxiliary verb of the sentence.
AUXILIARY VERB
SUBJECT
MAIN VERB
COMPLEMENT
Have
I
been
to São Paulo three times?
Have
you
studied
a lot?
Has
he/she/it
called
me?
Have
we
waited
for the letter?
Have
they
run
for about an hour?
When to Use the Present Perfect Tense in English
We use the present perfect tense in English to talk about things that have a connection between the present and the past.
EXAMPLE SENTENCE
CONNECTION
I’ve lived here for 2 years.
I started living here 2 years ago and I still live here.
You’ve worked at this company since 2015.
You started working at this company in 2015 and you still work here.
He’s studied a lot for this test.
He now knows everything he needs to do well on this test.
We’ve gone grocery shopping.
Now we have everything we need to eat during the week.
They’ve invited us to their wedding.
Now we have to decide whether we are going to the ceremony.
We also use the present perfect to talk about things that happened at an indefinite time in the past.
EXAMPLE SENTENCES
I’ve never felt like this in my life.
You have never been to Paris before.
He’s been to the doctor’s lately.
We haven’t studied recently.
Have they ever agreed to each other?
In addition, we use the present perfect to talk about unfinished periods of time.
EXAMPLE SENTENCES
I haven’t worked out this week.
You have played a lot of games today.
He’s studied hard this semester.
We haven’t seen her this week.
Have they cleaned their dorm this month?
Contractions
In informal, everyday speech it is very common for people to use contractions instead of full forms. See the possible contractions we can use with the present perfect below.
FULL FORM (AFFIRMATIVE)
CONTRACTION (AFFIRMATIVE)
FULL FORM (NEGATIVE)
CONTRACTION (NEGATIVE)
I Have
I’ve
I have not
I haven’t
You have
You’ve
You have not
You haven’t
He/she/it has
He’s/she’s/it’s
He/she/it has not
He/she/it hasn’t
We have
We’ve
We have not
We haven’t
They have
They’ve
They have not
They haven’t
Short Answers
When answering yes/no questions in this tense, we usually use short answers.
QUESTION
ANSWER
AFFIRMATIVE
NEGATIVE
Have I…?
Yes, I/you have.
No, I/you haven’t.
Have you…?
Yes, I/we have.
No, I/we haven’t.
Has he/she/it…?
Yes, I have.
No, he/she/it hasn’t.
Have we…?
Yes, I have.
No, we haven’t.
Have they…?
Yes, I have.
No, they haven’t.
Wh Question Words
Similar to what happens with other tenses, when we use wh question words with the present perfect tense in English we put them at the beginning of the sentence – before have or has.
How have I done this?
Where have you been?
Who has she gone out with?
What have we done?
When have they arrived here?
Have been and have gone
If someone has been to a specific place, this person hasgone there and has already returned.
If someone has gone to a specific place, this person has gone there but has not returned yet.
EXAMPLE SENTENCES
“Have you seen Flávio?” “He’s gone to the supermarket.”
“Have you ever traveled abroad?” “Yes, I have. I’ve been to China twice”.
Since and For
We use since to talk about a previous point in time.
We use for to talk about a period of time.
Compare the sentences below.
SINCE (period of time)
FOR (previous point in time)
I’ve lived here since 2017.
I’ve lived here for 5 years.
He hasn’t studied a new language since 2002.
He hasn’t studied a new language for 20 years.
Expressions of Time Used with the Present Perfect Tense in English
Some expressions of time commonly used with the present perfect are: recently, lately, just, so far, until now, up to now, ever, never, yet, today, this week/month/year etc., since they refer to an unspecified time in the past and to unfinished periods of time.
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