Hi, my name is Rani, today by special request I'm going to teach you some grammar.
A lot of people comment, thank you, and ask me, "Rani, what's present perfect, what's
past perfect, what's PP, where am I, how did I get here?"
So I'm here to help you, teach you this so you can learn it forever.
It's very easy once you get it first of all.
So present perfect versus past perfect, all of the tenses in English when you have something
that's perfect, it means you have to use the past participle of the verb.
Now as an English teacher, I don't like having to write past participle because it takes
a long time and it's hard to say really quickly.
So most people shorten it to PP, not, I have to PP, different, okay.
So when I write on the board PP, it means the past participle.
The past participle, it's hard to say, of the verb is the third part of the verb.
So for example, if you have the verb "have", what is the past participle of "have"?
Anyone know?
"Had", oh yay, good.
So "had" is the past participle of "have", perfect.
So let's start off.
Present perfect, we use for events in the past.
I know it's confusing because it says right here present perfect, but both of these grammars,
grammars?
Both of these tenses, we use to talk about a past event.
So present perfect is "have" or "has" plus the past participle.
If it is "I", "they", "you", and "we", we have to use "have".
If it is "he", "she", or "it", we have to use "has".
This is the number one mistake that students make when they're writing or speaking.
A lot of people say, "she have", which is wrong.
You have to be careful.
You can remember "he", "she", "it", "he", "she", "it", "shit" is "has", okay?
"I", "they", "you", and "we" is "have" plus the past participle.
So I've asked you, what is the past tense of "have"?
Answer, "had".
So if you know that the present tense is "have" plus "pp", you're going to go, "Oh, oh, oh,
yeah.
Okay, hold on."
The past tense of "have" is "had".
So when we use past perfect, all we're changing is this verb to "had".
It's that easy.
So the other very easy thing about past perfect is we don't have to change it for "he", "she",
or "it".
Yay.
There's nothing to really remember about the past perfect except for it's "had".
So "I", "he", "she", "it", "they", "we", and "you", we all use "had".
Fun times.
When we use the negative, it's the same idea except we're using "hadn't".
So "I", "he", "she", "it", "they", "you", "we", "you", "hadn't".
It's unusual to say "had not".
If you want to use "had not", it's to more emphasize things like, "I had not done that."
But we usually say "hadn't", okay?
And again, because it is perfect, you have to use the past participle or the PP of the
verb.
Is this easy now?
So present perfect "have" plus the past participle, past perfect "had" plus the past participle.
Good.
Let's go into the negative of present perfect.
When we use "I", "they", "you", and "we", we have to use "haven't", just like in the
present or in the positive.
And again, "he", "she", and "it", we have to use "hasn't" plus the past participle.
If you want to make a question in the present perfect, you're going to say "have" or "has".
Then you're going to use the subject.
So in this case, these are the subjects.
Has he plus the past participle.
Has he eaten is a present perfect sentence.
You can change "he" to a person's name.
I can say, "Has Kevin eaten?"
Because Kevin is a "he", I have to use "has".
So remember that as well, it's important.
When we use past perfect, like I said, it's the same idea.
We don't have to change this reflecting on the subject.
The question form, we don't have to change either.
So it's "had" plus your subject, plus your past participle, and you must have a question
mark.
If you do not have a question mark at the end of the sentence, it's just wrong, and
your teacher goes, "Wrong!"
And you don't understand why, because you remember "has" and "have", but don't forget
the question mark, all right?
So I hope that you can remember how to make present perfect and past perfect.
If you have any questions or comments about this, please email me.
Go to www.engvid.com, write me a letter, write me a comment, and I'll get back to you soon.
Bye-bye.