◎What you'll master
- Use the present perfect to link the past to now (experience, recent, unfinished).
- Form it with have / has + past participle.
- Use for + a period and since + a starting point.
- Use ever, never, already, yet, just correctly.
- Switch to the simple past the moment you name a finished time.
The core idea
The present perfect (have / has + past participle) links the past to now. The action happened at an unspecified time, and it still matters in the present. That's why we don't pin it to a finished time word.
Its three main jobs
Experience at some point in your life (I've visited Rome); a recent action with a present result (She's broken her arm — it's in plaster); and an unfinished situation that started in the past and continues (We've lived here for years).
For / since — and the recency words
Use for + a length of time (for three days) and since + a starting point (since Monday). Common partners: ever, never, already, yet, just, so far, recently.
The great divide: present perfect vs simple past
The moment you name a finished time (yesterday, in 2018, last week, ago), you must switch to the simple past. Present perfect = unfinished time or no time; simple past = finished time.
______ you ever
I ______ my keys — I can't get in.
She ______ to Japan in 2018.
He ______ just
This is the best meal I ______ ever
I ______ that film three times.
We ______ in Rome last week — it was wonderful.
I ______ never
✎Fix the Error
Each sentence has one mistake in the underlined word. Type the correction and check.
1.I have seen him yesterday.
2.She has went to Japan twice.
3.We live here since 2015.
4.He has wrote three emails today.
5.I have known him since ten years.