verb tenses 1

Rodrigo Fdez. Carmona

Raymond Murphy
 Present Perfect and Simple Past

Tom is looking for his key. He can´t find it.

● He has lost his key (present perfect)

Ten minutes later...

● Tom has found his key. He has it now.

He lost his key but now he has found it

Present Perfect and Simple Past

The present perfect (something has

happened) is a present tense. It
always tells us about the situation
now.
The simple past (something
happened) tells us only about the
past.
Present Perfect and Simple Past

Examples

● They´ve gone away. They´ll be back on

Friday (they are away now)
● They went away, but I think they are
back home now.
Present Perfect continuous

- My hands are dirty. I´ve been repairing

the car.

We use the Present Perfect Continuous to

indicate that the action has not been
finished yet.
How long...?
for, since, already, yet, just

- How long have you been reading that book?

- I´ve been learning English for six months
- He´s been in hospital for six months
- They have already done their homework
- She hasn´t read the newspaper yet.
- The plane has just landed
The Past Perfect

had + past participle

Sometimes we talk about something that happened in
the past:
- Sarah arrived at the party
If we want to talk about things that happened
before this time, we use the Past Perfect

● When Sara arrived at the party, Paul

had already gone home
The Past Perfect Continuous

You can say that something has been

happening for a period of time before
something else happened:

● We had been playing tennis for about an

hour when it started to rain heavily
It is the first/second...time + PRESENT
PERFECT

- It is the first time I have eaten raw

fish
- It´s the second time we´ve seen her
this week
It was the first/second...time...+ PAST
PERFECT
- It was the first time I had travelled by
plane
Past continuous

- An action in progress in the past

● This time last year I was living in Brazil

Past continuous vs. Simple Past

● I was walking home when I met Dave
● Kate was watching TV when we arrived
● I was walking along the road when I saw
Dave.So I stopped and we had a chat.