present perfect tense Archives - Linguix Blog

The English Verb Tenses, and Their Relationship

Samantha Ruff — Tue, 17 Dec 2019 22:49:39 +0000

English, like all languages, has verb tenses. But no two languages are exactly the same when it comes to the verb tenses they have, or even how they are used.

The table below reveals all the major verb tenses in English (there may be other niche tenses which are only used in very specific circumstances) and what they are for.

Verb tense	Example	Usage
Present Simple	I like pizza	to speak about things in general
Present Continuous	I’m thinking about getting a dog.	1) to speak about something happening now, or 2) to speak about a plan in the future
Past Simple	I went to the zoo yesterday	to speak about an action or situation that is finished
Past Continuous	I was playing tennis at 3pm yesterday when it started to rain.	to speak about an action that was in progress at a particular time (typically used with past simple)
Present Perfect	I’ve been in London for three years.	1) to speak about something which started in the past and continues now, or 2) to speak about something in the past that displays a current consequence, or 3) to speak about life experiences (when you do not clarify ‘when’
Present Perfect Continuous	I’ve been living in London for three years.	1) to speak about something which started in the past and continues now, or 2) to speak about an action that has been repeated consistently over a period that continues now, or 3) to speak about an action that has been repeated and is the cause of a current consequence
Past Perfect	I hadn’t seen the new Star Wars film so I went to see it yesterday	to speak about an action or event that occurred before another past action or event
Past perfect continuous	I had been living in New York for three years before I visited the Statue of Liberty	to speak about an action that progressed for a period of time, or was repeated, before another past action or event
Future Simple	I will go to the park tomorrow.	1) to speak about a future action that has been decided at the moment, or 2) to make a promise, or 3) to make a prediction
‘going to’ for future	I’m going to go to Canada next year	1) to speak about a future intention (but not necessarily a plan) or to make a prediction
Future continuous	I will be living in New York this time next year	to talk about a future action that will be in progress as a certain point in the future
Future perfect	By July next year, I will have celebrated my 40^th birthday	to speak about an event that has occurred before a fixed moment in the future
Future perfect continuous	By July next year, I will have been living in New York for three years	to speak about a continuous action or event (usually specified by time) that began at a point before a fixed time in the future
The imperative	Sit down!	to give an order
Present simple emphatic	I do like pizza	to be emphatic about a general action or situation
Past simple emphatic	I did like pizza.	1) to be emphatic about an action or situation in the past, or 2) to emphasize that a situation has changed

The table below reveals many of the major verb tenses in English, along with the other tenses they are typically used with. The collaborative nature of the verb tenses is one of the most difficult things to learn, as it is this aspect which can be most different between languages.

For this reason, it’s important to learn how to use verb tenses together. In fact, this is one of the keys to becoming fluent.

Verb tense	Can be used alone?	Typically used together with	Example
Present Simple	Yes	Present Continuous / Past Simple / Future Simple	I like pizza but I’m getting fat so I don’t eat it every day.
Present Continuous	Yes	Present simple	I’m thinking about getting a dog as I love animals.
Past Simple	Yes	Present simple / Past continuous / Present perfect	I went to the zoo yesterday, but it was raining.
Past Continuous	No	Past simple	I was playing tennis at 3pm yesterday when it started to rain.
Present Perfect	Yes	Past simple	I’ve been in London for three years and before that I lived in Spain.
Present Perfect Continuous	Yes	Past simple	I’ve been living in London for three years and before that I lived in Spain.
Past Perfect	No	Past simple	I hadn’t seen the new Star Wars film so I went to see it yesterday
Future Simple	Yes	Present simple	I will go to the park tomorrow because I love parks.

These are not all the tenses in English, but they are all of the most common. The ONLY tenses in English that MUST be used with other tenses (unless you state a specific time*) are past continuous and past perfect.

Past continuous is used to tell us when a longer action in the past was interrupted by another action (therefore, it MUST be used with another tense). For example,

“I was playing tennis yesterday when it started to rain.”
(playing tennis = long action that was interrupted, started to rain = the action that was the cause of the interruption)

Past perfect is used to talk about an action or situation that happened before another action.

“I hadn’t seen the new Star Wars film, so I went to see it yesterday.”
(hadn’t seen = the action that was the furthest in the past, went to see = the most recent past action)

* If you state a specific time, you can avoid the need to use these verb tenses in conjunction with another. For example:

“At 2 PM yesterday I was watching TV.”
“In June 2002, I had been living in London for nearly two years.”

The post The English Verb Tenses, and Their Relationship appeared first on Linguix Blog.

Learning English: How To Use The Present Perfect Tense Correctly

Brett Johnson — Mon, 18 Mar 2019 11:35:37 +0000

Of all the English language tenses, it is the present perfect which causes the most problems among learners. Although a present perfect tense does in fact exist in many other tongues, usage is typically not the same. As a result, the English language version of the present perfect tense can become a sense of frustration to students, making the learning process less enjoyable.

Yet the present perfect need not be such a mystery or source of irritation. Here are some examples of typical mistakes, along with the correct sentences and notes to help future usage. The present perfect need not be a problem anymore.

Connecting the past and the present

Mistake – I am living in London since July / I am living in London for three months.*
Correct – I have lived/have been living in London since July or I have lived/have been living** in London for three months.

Notes – The present perfect tense should always be used to connect an action that started in the past and continues in the present. Typically, this would be accompanied by the words since or for to express the period of time that has passed from that starting moment in the past until the present moment

*Using the present continuous tense in this case would actually result in conveying the meaning that your total stay in London will be three months.

**In the cases of the verbs live, work and study, the present perfect simple and present perfect continuous can be used to express the same idea.

For and Since

Mistake – I have lived/have been living in London since three months.
Correct – I have lived/have been living in London since July or I have lived/have been living in London for three months.

Notes – Since is used to convey the starting point of an action, for is used to convey the period of time that has elapsed.

Stating definitive moments in the past

Mistake – I have been to Italy last year.
Correct – I went to Italy last year.

Notes – Present perfect is never used in connection to a specific time in the past. Immediately a specific past time reference is given, only the past simple tense can be used. However, present perfect can be used to express an action in the past in order to show that a particular experience has taken place, or to show the number of times an action has taken place.

For example – I have been to Italy (life experience) or I have been to Italy three times (number of times)

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Speaking about past actions with present consequences

Mistake – Joe changed jobs.
Correct – Joe has changed jobs (as a present consequence, he has a new job).

Notes – Using past simple in the above example renders the action inconsequential to the present, which clearly is not the purpose of the information that is being given. Also, never use a past time reference in connection with the present perfect, so in this case use past simple.

For example – Joe changed jobs last week.

Using present perfect simple and present perfect continuous

Mistake – It has rained.
Correct – It has been raining.

Notes – Why would you say something like this? The answer is because you want to emphasise the consequence, which in this case would be that the ground is wet. Using the present perfect simple puts the focus on the action, rather than the consequence of that action.

Additional notes – Also use present perfect continuous when you want to emphasise the period of time that the action was in progress, or to emphasise that the action is not finished.

For example – I have been waiting for ages or I have been watching a movie (i.e., the movie is not finished. I have watched a movie would infer you watched until the end)

Already and just

Mistake – I have seen it yet.
Correct – I have already seen it.

Note – Yet is only used in negative and interrogative sentences. Already can be used in interrogative sentences (although yet is favoured) but is much more commonly used in affirmative sentences.

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