Welcome back everyone
This is minoo at Anglo-link and this is now the fourth video in our
learning the tenses series
As I've said before if you haven't seen the previous videos you may want to go and watch them first
in this fourth video
I'm going to explain the differences between the present perfect
"I have done" and the past simple "I did"
When you're ready, we'll get started
Right
Present perfect and past simple
Let's look at formulation first
You remember from the previous video that the present perfect is
formulated with the verb have and the past participle of the main verb
I have played tennis
You have played tennis
He/She has played
We, you and they have played
Now let's look at past simple
Past simple there are two types of verbs
regular verbs and
irregular verbs
For regular verbs you simply add "ed" to the end of the infinitive for example:
I played tennis
and it's the same form for all pronouns
I played
You played
He/She played
We, you and they played
For irregular verbs you would have to go and learn the form from a list you can go to our website
Anglo-link.com where you will find a list of the most common irregular verbs
Which you will have to memorize
That's all for formulation. Let's move on to usage
Right
Recap on the usage of present perfect which we looked at in the previous video
Action that is complete at the time of speaking
Examples were:
I've studied three sections until now
I've already done half of the exercises
He has driven 500 kilometers so far
Let's look at the past simple
Past simple is similar to present perfect
in that it also refers to a completed action in the past
But this time there is a clear reference to the specific time of the action in the past
Let's look at the examples
First example:
I've studied three sections until now
The action is complete, but we don't know when
If we add "the when element" if we specify the time in the past
the tense changes to past simple
Let's watch the change
I studied three sections last night
Let's look at the second example
I've already done half of the exercises
Let's add a specific time in the past
and the verb changes to
I did half of the exercises before lunch
and our final example:
He has driven 500 kilometers so far
Let's add the specific time in the past and watch the change from present perfect to past
simple
He drove 500 kilometers yesterday
Let's look at the timelines for a better picture of the differences
Here's the present perfect
that you saw in the previous video
an action in the past
completed at some point
We don't know when or we don't care to mention when
the action is complete
at the time of speaking
Now
if we mentioned that specific time in the past if it fits out past time we
we must change to past
simple
Action completed at a specific time in the past
There is no longer any connection with now
For example:
yesterday
two weeks ago
when I was 10
ETC
Let's look at some common mistakes
The most common mistake is using the present perfect
Instead of the past simple
for example saying something like
We have bought this car two months ago
Because we are mentioning a specific time in the past
Two months ago
We should use the past simple
We bought this car two months ago
another example
I have slept well last night
Once again last night refers to a specific time in the past
so we need to use the past simple
I slept well last night
Another example
She has met him when she was at college
Again when she was at College
refers to a specific period of time in the past
and therefore, we should use past simple
She met him when she was at College
The mistake can be made the other way around
Using the past simple where present perfect is required
For example:
I already called him
Already means sometime in the past
until now
it's not specific
Therefore we should use
The present perfect
I have already called him
I must point out that
I already called him is some time is acceptable in American English
Let's look at two other examples
Where the past tense is used
She just came back you might hear this especially in America
but really the correct tense is
she has just come back
because just
Doesn't refer to a specific time in the past
It tells us that the action is complete
Not a long time ago
And let's look at our last example
Prices went up this month
This month is not a reference in the past
the month continues, it's a present time
It means until now in this month, so we should use the present perfect
Prices have gone up this month
Well, that's all for this video. I hope you've enjoyed watching it
As you know you can now go to our website anglo-link.com to read the explanations and do the exercises
to review this point
Thank you for watching I'll see you in the next video. Bye now