TITC

Present perfect/Countries

Have you ever been to London?

Grammar

Present perfect simple – experiences

The present perfect simple is used to talk about actions which happened
in the past at an indefinite time. Often, it is used to describe experiences
using ever and never.

Have you ever visited the City of London?

(i.e. Do you have any experience of visiting London)
Yes, I have.
(i.e. Yes, at some indefinite time in my life and the specific time is
unimportant.)

Note! When you ask for and give more information about these
experiences such as how, when, why and how long, you use the past
simple.

When did you visit the City of London?

In 2001.

Has/have + past participle = present perfect simple.

The contracted form is usually used -‘ve or –‘s

I’ve been working. He’s played football.

Negative ( - )
I haven’t had any problems. I’ve never had any problems.

Question ( ? )
Have you ever had any problems?

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Exercises
A Write the past participle of the following verbs:
Example: swim = swum

play ____________ wear ____________

love ____________ think ____________

sell ____________ visit ____________

meet ____________ work ____________

eat ____________ drink ____________

try ____________ know ____________

live ____________ win ____________ be ____________

have ____________ teach ____________ understand ____________

B Rewrite the following sentences using the past simple or the present
perfect of the verb in brackets:

Example: (see) you ever the Pyramids in Egypt?

Have you ever seen the Pyramids in Egypt?

1. (buy) you ever flowers for someone else?

2. (have) you for breakfast this morning?

3. (fly) a plane?

4. (eat) you ever Spaghetti Bolognese?

5. (visit) you ever Tokyo, Japan?

6. When (be) the last time you (go) to the cinema?

Lesson E 113 © The International TEFL Corporation 2004 2

 TITC Questionnaire:

Places you have been and things you have done

When someone asks you “Have you ever been to London, England?”,
do you say “Yes I have, I went there five years ago” ?
Or do you say “Yes I have, I saw Big Ben, the Millennium Eye, the
Tower of London and the London Dungeon. It
rained every day and people on the trains were
upset because they were late”? Some people
like to talk about places they have been and
some need more questions for details.

Try the questionnaire and find out how many things you have done and where
you have been: Answer Yes or No, and give details where possible. Yes with
a full explanation = 2 points, Yes with some detail = 1 points, No = 0 points.

1. Have you ever been to the capital of your country?

2. Have you ever travelled to another country?

3. Have you ever flown on a plane?

4. Have you ever been ski-ing?

5. Have you ever been to Japan?

6. Have you ever been to America?

7. Have you ever eaten the national dish of another country?

8. Have you ever eaten frog, dog, shark or ostrich?

9. Have you ever cooked food for somebody else?

10. Have you ever been ill after eating food?

11. Have you ever shared your food with a pet?

12. Have you ever been to a major sports event?

13. Have you ever played a sport for your school?

14. Have you ever met a famous sportsperson?

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15. Have you ever played tennis?

16. Have you ever run longer than 10km?

17. Have you ever been to a gym?

18. Have you ever won a medal or sports trophy?

19. Have you ever suffered a sports injury?

20. Have you ever scored the winning goal for your team?

How did you score?

Points: 30 to 40: You have been very lucky to see and do such a
variety of places and things or you are very adventurous. You also
have a healthy sporty nature. Maybe you should make a
photo collection of places you have visited and share it
with others who have not been as lucky as you!

Points: 10 to 30: You have already achieved a long list of

adventures and seen interesting things in your
life. You have possibly been involved and
succeeded in some way through sports. If you
want to be in the 30 to 40 points category you
will have to plan some more trips
and sports matches!

Points: less than 10 : Maybe you are not

interested in some of the places and
activities you have been asked about or
perhaps you are but haven’t had the time or opportunity
to do them. Don’t worry! You still have plenty of time if you
decide you want to do something new!

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Questionnaire Answer Sheet

1.

2. ________ _

3. _____

4. ___________

5. ________

6. ____________

7. ________________

8.

9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

15.

16.

17.

18. ________

________

19. ________

________

20. ________

_____________

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 TITC
Present perfect/Countries
Have you ever been to London?

ENGAGE
Introduce yourself and the country you are from. Ask students if they have ever been there. Ask students to
brainstorm countries they (i) know (ii) have been to and (iii) know someone else has been to. Ask students if
they met nationals in those countries and then ask students to give the name for the nationalities – Japanese
from Japan, Chinese from China. Ask more general “have you ever” questions to see how much the students
already know.

STUDY
Elicit the vocabulary not drawn out in the engage stage. Aim to cover the countries used in the exercises,
nationalities and other vocabulary relevant to the activate questionnaire: London, England, English, Big Ben,
Millennium Eye, Tower of London, London Dungeon, Japan, Tokyo, Japanese, pyramids, Egypt, Egyptians,
Italy, Italians, Opera, sports event, shared, pet, national dish, famous sportsperson, sports trophy, ostrich and
gym. Depending on which country you are in, draw a map on the board and ask students to label the
countries and nationalities. Ask students to complete some gapfills “Have you ever English food in
England?”. Board the relevant parts of the grammar box.

Demonstrate the examples for each exercise before handing them out to students. For both exercises,
observe, monitor, feedback by self-correction, peer correction and then teacher correction.

A Write the past participle of the following verbs

B Rewrite the following sentences using the past simple or the present perfect
of the verb in brackets

ACTIVATE
The aim of the “Have you ever been questionnaire” is for students to use the present perfect to elicit the
answers of their teammates and to apply a scoring system to their answers. Demonstrate asking a question
from the questionnaire and focus on showing the students that a fuller answer than yes or no is an essential
part of the activity. Depending on the size of your group, ask pairs to quiz 2 or 3 other pairs in the group and
complete the questionnaire. At the end of the exercise, students feed back to the group on their findings.
They also provide the scores of their teammates.

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