Present perfect: introduction

When you use it

The present perfect connects the past to the present. Use it for experience at some time in your life, without saying when (I have been to Rome); for a recent event whose result matters now (I have lost my keys, so I cannot get in); and for a situation that started in the past and still continues (we have lived here for ten years). What the three uses share is that the exact time is not the point. As soon as you say when (yesterday, in 2019, last week), you switch to the past simple.

How it is formed

Have or has + past participle. For regular verbs the past participle is the -ed form, the same as the past simple. For irregular verbs it is the third form in the list: go, went, gone; see, saw, seen; eat, ate, eaten.

Short forms: I've, you've, he's, she's, we've, they've; haven't, hasn't. Note that she's can mean she is or she has; the participle after it tells you which. Short answers: Have you eaten? Yes, I have. No, I haven't.

For takes a length of time (for two hours, for years); since takes a starting point (since Monday, since 2020). Been is the participle of be and, in one meaning, of go: he has been to Paris means he went and came back; he has gone to Paris means he is still there.

Examples

• I have seen this film twice.
• Anna has lost her keys again.
• Tom has finished his homework, so he can go out.
• We have lived in this street for six years.
• Have you eaten yet? There is soup in the kitchen.
• Someone has broken the window.
• I have known Anna since we were children.
• They have never been to the sea.

The first and last examples are experience; the second, third, fifth and sixth are recent events with a result now; the fourth and seventh are situations that continue.

Common mistakes

• ✗ I have seen Tom yesterday.
  ✓ I saw Tom yesterday.
  A finished time (yesterday, last year, in 2019, two hours ago) needs the past simple. Ukrainian and Russian have one past tense for both, «я бачив / я видел», so the choice depends on a distinction the learner's own language does not draw: is the time named or not?
• ✗ I live here since 2020. / ✗ I am living here for ten years.
  ✓ I have lived here since 2020. / I have lived here for ten years.
  A situation that began in the past and continues now takes the present perfect. Slavic languages use the present («я живу тут з 2020 року / я живу здесь с 2020 года»), which is the direct source of this error.
• ✗ She has went home. / ✗ I have saw it.
  ✓ She has gone home. / I have seen it.
  The present perfect uses the third form, the past participle, not the past simple. For regular verbs the two forms are identical, which hides the rule until an irregular verb appears.
• ✗ Have you ever been in London?
  ✓ Have you ever been to London?
  With been meaning "visited", English uses to, as if the movement were still inside the verb. Russian «был в Лондоне» makes in feel natural, but it is wrong here.
• ✗ He is just arrived. / ✗ I did not finish yet.
  ✓ He has just arrived. / I have not finished yet.
  Ukrainian and Russian have no auxiliary at all in «він щойно приїхав / он только что приехал», so learners pick one at random. The answer is always have, never be. The second version, with the past simple, is common in American English; in British English yet, just and already normally go with the present perfect.

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