Welcome to English grammar spot, this lesson is about the difference between
the past simple and the present perfect.
I am going to show you when to use a past simple and when to use a present perfect
and more important how to keep them apart.
Take a look at these sentences:
I broke my leg on holiday last year.
I have broken my leg.
The first sentence is in the past simple tense, the second sentence is in the
present perfect tense
First we are going to take a look at how to form a past simple
and how to form a present perfect.
For the regular verbs we take the infinitive form of the verb and add '-ed' for the past simple.
For example
I kicked the ball.
For the irregular verbs:
we use the unique past simple form.
For instance She bought a bike.
For the present perfect we use the auxiliary verb 'to have' and the past participle.
For the regular verbs we make a past participle by adding '-ed' to the verb.
For example I have kicked the ball.
For the irregular verbs the present perfect also uses the past participle
but this past participle has a unique past perfect form.
She has bought a bike.
Now let's have a look at when we use a past simple.
We use a past simple when something happened at a specific time
in the past.
I broke my leg last week.
So it's important that I tell you that it was last week.
For the present perfect time is not important
I have broken my leg. It's not important when it happened.
We also use a present perfect for things that started in the past but have
continued in the present.
For example: I have lived here since 2012.
In the past simple that would be: I lived there in 2012.
Meaning I no longer live there.
I thank you for your attention. For regular updates please subscribe to
youtube.com/englishgrammarspot or go to
www.englishgrammarspot.com