PRESENT PERFECT and PRESENT PERFECT CONTINUOUS

Perfect tenses generally focus on HOW A PAST ACTION AFFECTS THE

PRESENT. Perfect tenses generally focus on how a past action affects the
present.

1. PRESENT PERFECT : HAVE or HAS + Past participle verb

I HAVE worked
You HAVE worked
HE, SHE, IT HAS worked
We HAVE worked
They HAVE worked

For example : “ I have already eaten “.

So you form the PRESENT PERFECT using HAS or HAVE + a past

participle verb . For example : I have seen Spider Man.

The difference between the SIMPLE PAST and PRESENT PERFECT is

not easy to understand.

When there is a specific time, you use the simple past.

In the sentence “I saw Spider Man last night”, the adverb LAST NIGHT is
a specific time.
You CANNOT say : I have seen Spider Man last night.
BUT you could say, I have seen Spider Man before, or, in the past, or
three times.
You should also use the present perfect to refer to a repeated action in the
past : for example, I have taken that test four times.
The exact time of each action is not important.
You can also use the present perfect to describe an action that did not
happen, using the adverb NEVER. For example, “I have never travelled
outside of my country”, and “ I have never smoked in my entire life”.
Something that did not happen in the past, like not travelling and not
smoking, can also have an effect in the present.

You could say : I have been to Europe and Australia

I have visited many countries in Europe, like Italy,
France, Spain and Germany.

The adverbs : never, already, yet and so far are common in the present
perfect. Adverbs are often the best indicators of which verb tense to use.

Let´s see these exercises :

1. She ___ (eat) all of the cookies.

2.Maxwell ___ (write) his essay.

3.Thomas ___ (find) a new friend.

4.George and Kerry ___ (go) to the mountains.

5.The president ___ (not/ give) his speech yet.

6.Carolyn ___ (not/ talk) to Richard.

7.The teachers ___ (give) us the homework.

8.The cowboys ___ (drink) all the beer.

9.The swimmers ___ (swim) across the lake.

 10.The boy ___ (fall) down.

11.We ___ (choose) to meet with Mr. Green.

12.You ___ (wear) that dress for 5 days.

13.We ___ (not/ drive) the truck since 1999.

The PAST PARTICIPLES are used for all perfect tense forms of a
verb and in the passive voice.
For regular verbs, we normally add ED to form its past participle.
For example : walk – walkED , talk – talkED
For irregular verbs there are no rules. It is just a matter of practice.
*LIE – Lie has two meanings. When it means “to put your body in a
horizontal position” (normally on a bed) it uses the Lie-Lay-Lain
verbs.
*BUT it is regular Lie-Lied-Lied when it has the other meaning
of “not to speak the truth”.
*READ – Even though they are written the same, the
pronunciation is different in the Past Tense and Past Participle form.

PRESENT PERFECT CONTINUOUS

The PRESENT PERFECT CONTINUOUS tense represents the
actions that are started in the past, and the action continues in the
current time, or maybe continued in the future.
The present perfect continuous focuses on duration, or something
continuing. With this tense, I am emphasising that CONTINUING
action (rather than a finished result).
Examples :
You HAVE BEEN tell+ING a lie
He HAS BEEN go+ING to the park every morning
She HAS BEEN watch+ING a movie since five o´clock
They HAVE BEEN play+ING for four hours
I HAVE BEEN try+ING to learn the English language
We HAVE NOT BEEN play+ING
They HAVE BEEN writ+ING a book
Every summer vacation we HAVE BEEN go+ING to the beach
She HAS BEEN sing+ING a song

PRESENT PERFECT CONTINUOUS – is the tense that is most

common , especially when you talk about experiences, things you
have done in the past, at an unspecified time, and that are true today.
Example : I started teaching in the past, in 2012. Because today the
year is 2022, I can connect the past to the present by saying :
I have been teaching for ten years. OR, I have been a teacher since
2012.
The present perfect continuous focuses on duration, or something
continuing. With this tense, I am emphasizing that CONTINUING
action (rather than a finished result).

Example : I had been studying for three years when I started teaching

I had been smoking for ten years before I quit

Note that the past perfect continuous often includes the adverbs FOR
and SINCE to express duration. You will also see the adverbs BEFORE,
WHEN or BY THE TIME used to introduce a second action.

The second action uses the SIMPLE PAST TENSE.

Examples : I HAD BEEN study+ING for 12 years BY THE TIME I

graduated from high school

She HAD BEEN LIV+ING there SINCE she was a child

He HAD BEEN teach+ING for 10 years BEFORE he was certified

We can also describe a recently completed action… for example :

My clothes were wet because it had been raining

He was talking loudly because he had been drinking