Hello everyone. Welcome to Wednesday!!

Your lesson begins at 9:15

Please go directly to “Wednesday Lesson” ….and work at the lesson alone until the Zoom
part of the lesson (9:45 – 10:45 first group) (11:00 – 12:00 second group).

Remember – the idea of the new lesson structure is that YOU do the work yourself. Some
students work faster than other students, so you work at your own speed.

During the Zoom part, you can ask me questions about the grammar/vocabulary…or I will
ask you questions, using today’s grammar.

 You must arrive in the Zoom part ON TIME (we only have 1 hour) as I explain what
we are going to do at the beginning.
 You MUST switch ON your camera (I don’t want to see a black screen), please. If
you continue without the camera ON, I’m afraid I will have to exit you from the
meeting.
 Please try to make sure that there isn’t any noise in your bedroom/kitchen during
the lesson. We already have problems with the quality of the sound of the
microphones.

After the Zoom part you go back and click on “Wednesday Practice”. You work alone again
like any other day.

The “system” in the Practice section gives you the correct answers (so you can see where
you made the mistakes) and it also gives you marks (7/10, 8/10 etc). With these marks we
can see if you are making progress or not.

Today’s grammar:
THE PRESENT PERFECT

Subject + has/have + past participle of verb There is always a result or consequence

in the Present.

I’ve opened the window. (The result is the present is: the window is open).

John has just arrived. (The result in the present: he is here).

My students have worked on Moodle this week. (We can see (now) the work that is
completed.
More situations where we use the Present Perfect –

Actions of duration that occurred in the past (before now) of unspecified

time. So…
She’s opened the window.

I’ve been to France, Germany and Switzerland. (We do not say WHEN we went to these
places or WHEN we opened the window).

Actions that started in the past but continue to the present. So…
I’ve worked in Liffey College since January 2016.

Michael D. Higgins has been the president of Ireland since 2011. (I still work in Liffey
College. Michael D. Higgins is still the president).

Actions that started in the past but stopped recently. So…

Joe and Katie have done the dishes. (We see that the dishes are clean, dry and put away

He has arrived (He is here now…the action of arriving is finished).

For actions of duration that occurred in the past (before now) but are of unspecified time.
The Present Perfect is different from the Simple Past. The Simple Past is a past
tense. The Present Perfect is “half in-the-past and half (or more!!) in-the-
present !!

When we use the SIMPLE PAST, we say WHEN the action happened, or it is
understood from the context. Every time you use the Simple Past you MUST
have a “context in past time”, for example -
yesterday, three weeks ago, in 1999, when I was at school, 5 months ago etc…

My students started working on Moodle three weeks ago.

Christiano Ronaldo scored a lovely goal for Portugal in the match against England on
February 15th.

I went to a university in Belfast to study French when I was 18.

Pedro bought a big bunch of flowers for his girlfriend last Saturday

This is a timeline to show how the Present Perfect works….

Doctor: “How long have you been afraid of spiders?”

Marie: “I’ve had it since I was about 12, so for about 30 years now.”

1979 1991 l……………………………………l….

……………………………………………………………………NOW.

X …… . ….. .since …… 1991….. .. …. . ….…NOW

(…………………..………………30………………
years………………………………..……….NOW)

1979 – she was born

1991 – she was 12 years old.

X her fear of spiders began. (in 1991)

X ….. ….. ….. …… she has been afraid of spiders since 1991

(………………………..) she has been afraid of spiders for 30 years