Present Perfect Tense

have you ever eaten a snake have you ever been to Timbuktu Katmandu have you ever studied the present perfect well you're in luck because we will be answering these and other important questions this time on grammar gurus I'm Rama and this is grandma gurus today we'll be looking at the present perfect we'll look at the form of the present perfect we'll look at when and why we use the present perfect and we'll look at some example sentences when and why we use the present perfect can be a little bit tricky so let's look first at the form of the present perfect to form the present perfect we use a subject plus the helper verb have or has plus the past participle sometimes called verb 3 we use have with I we you and they and we use has with she he and it if you've ever tried to memorize remember the verb forms in English the past participle is the third form that you say that's why it's sometimes called verb 3 for example go went gone gone is participa fly flew flown flown is the past participle eat ate eaten eaten is the past participle now sometimes the second and the third form of the verbs are the same the past and the past participle for example in the verb play play played played or in the verb make make made made you see there that the second and the third verb form are the same now sometimes all three forms are the same for example with the verb hit hit hit hit or the verb put put put put and sometimes the first and the third verb form are the same so the present and the past participle are the same for example with the verb run ran run there's no real easy way or special technique to memorize or to remember the forms of all these verbs when the first and the third are the same or when they're all different you really just have to memorize them to remember them okay let's look at some examples to help show the form of the present perfect I have eaten breakfast already okay so where is the subject the who or what that does the action in this sentence I what is the main action verb the main action word in this sentence eaten and are there any other verbs that help to make this sentence the present perfect any helping verbs and half so we have the subject I the helper verb have and the main verb eaten let's look at our next example Godzilla has attacked the city five times okay so where is the subject who or what that does the action in this sentence yes of course Godzilla what's the main action verb the main action word in the sentence attacked and are there any other verbs that help make this sentence the present perfect has why is it has in this sentence well because Godzilla is in it and with she/he and it we use has as the helper verb and not have so Godzilla has it has attacked the city five times let's look at our next sentence she has written an elephant before well now the subject is she the helper verb has once again because we use has with she he and it she has the main verb written she has written and elephant before I should mention here that the helper verb have in the present perfect is not like the main verb have in the present simple in the present simple sentence I have two brothers have is the main verb and has me me it shows that the brothers are yours or belong to you they're your brothers but if you look at have in the present perfect sentence I have eaten breakfast here the half doesn't really have any meaning it's just a helper verb that's put there to help make the present perfect the verb that has the meaning is the main verb eaten have is just there to help make the tense now let's look at contractions for a minute now in the present perfect we often use contractions so what is a contraction a contraction is when you take two words and you put them together to make one word now let's look at our example sentences and make some contractions I have eaten breakfast already now we can take the I the subject and we can take the have the helper verb and merge them together to make I've eaten breakfast already let's look at our next example sentence Godzilla has attacked the city five times okay so here we can take the subject Godzilla and the helper verb has and we can mix them together to make Godzilla's attacked the city five times it can also be a little bit tricky too here has in this sentence because now it's just an S sound at the end of Godzilla Godzilla's attacked the city five times so it can be a bit tricky but you just have to listen and pay attention to hear that sound and note that's the verb has that's now made a contraction with Godzilla let's look at our third sentence she has written an elephant before now we can take she and has and mix them together to make cheese she's written an elephant before now once again that one can be a little bit difficult to hear but there's an S at the end and has has merged with she she's written an elephant before okay so now let's talk about when and why we use the present perfect we use the present perfect to talk about a completed action a finished action that happened at an unspecified time meaning that we aren't saying when exactly the action was completed in a moment of time that includes now okay so I know that sounds a little bit difficult but really it's not that difficult to understand once we look at some examples and look at a chart just give me a moment well well first let's let's ask the question how long is a moment how long is the present moment this moment well when we use the present perfect we can make this moment however long we want we can think about this moment as being the time it's taken to watch this video this morning or we can expand it even further by using the present perfect we can expand this moment starting from now and going back to any point in time that we choose and call that present and then we can talk about something that happened or hasn't happened in that moment all right now we should mention that when we use the present perfect we can't talk about a specific time in the past we can't say yesterday five hours ago two years ago last month because then we're pointing to and talking about the past and we have to use the past simple okay now it's time for some examples I have eaten breakfast okay so what's the present moment in this sentence what's the chunk of time that we're talking about well we're talking about this morning because breakfast is eaten in the morning so we're taking this morning and we're calling that the present moment and we're talking about something eating something that happened in that moment now we're not saying exactly when it happened we're not saying I have eaten breakfast two hours ago because we can't use that with the present perfect if we're saying the exact time that it happened that's the past it happened in the past it doesn't include the present it's not the present moment and we can't use the present perfect I have paid the rent already okay so in this sentence what is the present moment what is the chunk of time that we're talking about we're talking about this month because rent is normally paid monthly so we're taking this month recalling it present and we're talking about something that I've done in this month I've seen the new spider-man movie okay so now what is the amount of time what is the present moment in this sentence well it's from the time that the movie opened in the theaters up until now we're taking that time and we're calling it present and I'm saying that within that time I have seen a spider-man movie now I don't say exactly when just that in this amount of time up until now I've seen the movie I've been to Thailand seven times since 2001 okay so here I'm talking about a space of time from 2001 until now as the present moment and talking about what I have done in that chunk of time I have eaten snake what is the moment in this sentence what is the amount of time my whole life I'm talking about this life so I've made my whole life into one moment one chunk of time and I'm talking about something that I have done in this life okay now let's look at examples of the use of present perfect talking about your whole life as the present moment so our example sentence was I have eaten snake let's make a yes/no question with this example sentence to make a yes/no question we take the helper verb have and we move it to the front and it becomes have you eaten snake now often when talking about your whole life we like to add the word ever have you ever eaten snake you don't need to say it but normally we do when asking about your whole life have you ever eaten snake now to answer this you can answer with yes or no if you answer with yes you can say yes plus the subject I plus the helper verb have yes I have if we answer with no we use no plus the subject plus the helper verb have and then we also add not no I have not now we can take the have and the not and make a contraction haven't so we can say no I haven't if we want to ask a more information question we can ask for example uh when have you eaten snake I've eaten snake three or four times in the last year so now if you want to make this a negative we just take never and we had never into the sentence and it becomes I have never eaten snake when you say never you mean that in your whole life you haven't done this you have never done this so I have eaten snake to make it negative becomes I have never eaten snake okay let's look at our next sentence I have been to Thailand seven times since 2001 now when we're using the present perfect we often use since and for since is only one we want to talk about at what time did this moment this chunk of time start and for we use for to talk about how long this chunk of time this moment is so in our sentence I have been to Thailand seven times since 2001 we're using since to talk about when the amount of time started since 2001 now to make a yes/no question we'll take the helper verb have and move it to the front and then we'll drop the seven times because we don't know we're asking a question and it becomes have you been to Thailand since 2001 now to answer this yes/no question we can answer yes or no if we answer yes we say yes I have and if we answer with no we say no I have not or no I haven't if you want to ask more information question with this sentence you could ask why have you been to Thailand since 2001 well I've been to Thailand because I really like Thailand it's a beautiful country now to make a negative of this sentence let's go ahead and take off the seven times because it's no longer true and we'll make and we'll add not after the helper verb have so the sentence becomes I have not been to Thailand since 2001 and we should also look at four just briefly now when we use for we talked about how long the moment how long the amount of time we're talking about is for example I have taught English for ten years so after four we'll be giving an amount of time for ten years for five months for an hour for fifteen minutes we'll be giving an amount of time after four okay so we need to talk about yet and already because when we use the present perfect we often use yet and already already is used to answer a question and to emphasize to show more clearly that an action has been completed for example in the sentence she has paid the rent already yet is used with things that we expect if we ask a question with yet we are asking about whether an action that we expect to be completed soon has been completed or not okay so let's make a question yes/no question out of this example sentence now we don't use already with questions but we can use yet on making questions in the present perfect so the question is has she paid the rent yet now the yet shows that we expect her to pay the rent and we want to know if she has paid it or not now we can answer this question with yes she has paid the rent already or no she hasn't paid the rent yet so in that answer she hasn't paid yet but we expect her to pay sometime soon we use yet in the negative to talk about something that hasn't happened but that we expect to happen soon let's look at some other examples of yet used in negative present perfect sentences the rain hasn't stopped yet my friend hasn't arrived yet so in this case we're expecting the rain to stop but it hasn't stopped yet and we're expecting our friend to arrive but he or she hasn't arrived yet let's look at one more example sentence he has seen the new spider-man movie has he seen the new spider-man movie yet yes he's seen the new spider-man movie already no he hasn't seen the new spider-man movie yet all right now let's look at how we make questions using who and what we use who for questions about people and we use what for questions about things that are not people let's look at our first example Godzilla has attacked the city five times so if we want to make this a question it's very easy all we have to do is take out the subject and replace it with who or what now the subject in this case is Godzilla so what do we replace it to replace it with who or what well Godzilla is not a person so we'll replace it with what what has attacked the city five times Godzilla has a temp the city five times all right let's look at another one she has written an elephant before well okay let's take the subject who's the subject of this sentence she and we'll replace it with who or what what do we use who or what who of course because she is a person so the sentence becomes who has written an elephant before and now it's a question as easy as that we just replace the subject with a who or what and it becomes a question okay now it's time for the tough stuff let's talk about how we use ever in the present perfect now I said before that we use ever when asking questions about your whole life in the present perfect and that's true but we can also use ever in negative sentences we can use ever in a negative sentence if the sentence has a negative or if the subject is a negative like nothing no one nobody for example nothing good has ever happened to me nothing good has ever happened to me well it's not true but nothing because the subject is negative nothing we can't use never again that's called a double negative so nothing good has ever happened to me let's look at another example I haven't ever eaten stink now in this sentence we have a negative not I have not ever eaten snake and because we already have a negative we can't use never which is another negative that would be a double negative so we say I haven't ever eaten snake now that's just another way of saying I have never eaten snake they both mean the same thing they're just two different ways of saying it now we can't use ever in a positive sentence for example we don't say I have ever eaten snake in that case we just say I have eaten snake well that's it for this episode of grammar gurus I hope that you now understand more when and why the present perfect is used and have a better idea of how to form the present perfect okay so I hope you enjoyed our present perfect video don't forget to subscribe and if you would like to support our channel and help us make more videos please check out our patreon page as always if you have any questions about English or grammar just leave them in the comment section below and thanks for watching see you next time

Channel: Grammar Gurus

Views: 221,809

Rating: 4.8620691 out of 5

Keywords: Present Perfect

Id: bjbOpNzSCZ4

Length: 23min 36sec (1416 seconds)

Published: Sat Mar 05 2016