Exercises to learn English

Present perfect

FORM

All perfect tenses are formed with the auxiliary verb have in the tense required by the situation followed by the verb you want to conjugate in past participle.

In this particular case, you have to put the auxiliary verb have in the present tense and the verb you are conjugating in past participle.

Affirmative form (... have / has + Verb in past participle): Brian has bought a new bicycle.

Negative form ... have / has + not + Verb in past participle): Jane and Sally have not arrived home yet.

Interrogative form (... have / has + subject + Verb in past participle): Collin, have you cleaned the bathroom?

USES

The present perfect is used to speak about:

indefinite events in a period of time leading up to the present:

Paul is an avid reader and he has read El Quijote and many other books.

We call them indefinite events because it is not mentioned when they took place. In the example above, the action expressed by read is represented by means of a question mark because it is not mentioned when it happened. We only say that at some time during Paul's life (a period of time that started in the past and continues in the present) the action was carried out.

If the time when the action happened is mentioned (1) or implied (2) in the sentence we have to use the simple past tense:

1 Paul read El Quijote when he was at school.

2 Benito Pérez Galdós read El Quijote. Galdós is dead therefore his life is a period of time that started in the past and finished in the past.

an action or situation that began in the past and continues up to the present:

The man in the picture has been in prison for three years.

His stay in prison started three years ago and still continues in the present. He is now in prison.

For is used withe a period of time: We have lived in this house for five years.

Since is used with a point in time: We have lived in this house since 1997.

JUST, ALREADY, YET

These three adverbs are often used with verbs conjugated in the present perfect.

JUST shows that the action is very recent. It goes between the auxiliary verb and the main verb:

John has just arrived. (He arrived a few minutes ago.)

ALREADY means before now. It is usually placed between the auxiliary verb and the main verb.

I have already finished my homework. Can I go out now?

YET means by this / that time or until now / then. It is used in negative and interrogative sentences and it is placed at the end of the sentence:

Have you finished yet? No, I haven´t finished yet.