The Present Perfect and Past Simple tenses have some similarities because they both talk
about past events so they often get confused.
Zan commented on another video asking “What’s the difference between “I have washed my car"
and “I washed my car”.
This is a great question and because this can be very confusing.
I have washed my car.
Is Present Perfect and I washed my car is Past Simple.
These two tenses are very different but also very similar.
They both talk about events that happen in the past, even though Present Perfect is a Present tense.
So, you can see why they get confused.
But when you understand the different meanings, you will be able to communicate more accurately
and effectively when discussing past actions and their relationship to the present.
To begin, let's look at when we use the Past simple tense.
The Past simple tense is used to describe a specific past action that happened at a
specific time in the past.
It's formed with the simple past form of the main verb.
For example, "I washed my car."
Or you could form it with the auxiliary verb ”I did wash my car.”
This sentence means that the speaker washed their car at a specific time in the past,
but the time is not necessarily important.
The emphasis is on the specific past event, without any connection to the present.
They probably washed their car lots of times.
But in this example, they are referring to a specific time.
Now let's look at the Present Perfect tense.
The Present Perfect tense is also used to refer to a past action.
So why is it called the Present Perfect?
Well with the present Perfect there must also be a connection between that past event and the present.
So, we are referring to the past event, but we are really talking to about how it affects the present moment.
It's formed with the auxiliary verb "have" and the past participle form of the main verb.
“I have washed my car.”
or with the auxiliary verb ”has” if it is third person.
“He has washed my car.”
This sentence means that the speaker washedtheir car at some point in the past,
but the time is not specified.
The emphasis is on the result of the action, and the connection to the present.
The speaker is really telling us that their car is now clean.
Lets look at another example.
"I went to Paris in 2015."
This sentence tells us that the speaker visited Paris at a specific time in the past, which was in 2015.
It doesn't imply anything about the present and doesn't give any information about whether
the speaker has any current experience or knowledge about Paris.
The speaker may have been to Paris lots of times, but here they are just talking about
the specific time in 2015.
In the present Perfect, "I have been to Paris."
This sentence tells us that the speaker has visited Paris at some point in the past, but
it isn’t referring to a specific event.
They are saying that now they have the memory or experience of being in Paris.
The speaker may have been many times,
all of which contribute to them now having that memory or experience or knowledge.
It's important to note that there are three words that are commonly used with the Present
Perfect tense which modify it’s meaning slightly, these are "just," "already," and "yet."
For example, "I have just eaten breakfast."
This sentence means that the speaker has eaten breakfast at some point in the recent past.
“The package has already arrived.”.
"Already" implies that the action was completed sooner than expected.
We only use “yet” with negative sentences or questions, for example: “She hasn’t
done her homework yet.
“ or “Has she done her homework yet?”
The word "yet" is used to indicate that an action has not been completed up to the present moment.
Now, let's do a little excercise to practice using these two tenses.
I will give you some sentences, and you need to decide which tense to use.
You can use the chapter points to rewind and watch part of the video again if you want to.
Here is the first question.
My friend (visit) me last week.
The answer is “My friend visited me last week.”
(Past simple) We know this because the speaker specified
“last week”.
Here is the next question.
“I (not eat) breakfast yet.”
The answer is “I have not eaten breakfast yet.” (Present Perfect)
We know this because we only use “yet” with present perfect.
Here is the next question.
“I (read) five books this month.”
The answer is “I have read five books this month.” (Present Perfect)
This is a tricky one.
We know this is present perfect because this month is not over yet.
If it was last month we would have to use past simple.
But because this month is not over yet, we might end up reading more.
So really we are talking about the current moment, this month up until now.
Here is the next question.
“They (go) to the beach last summer.”
The answer is “They went to the beach last summer.” (Past simple)
Last summer is a specific time from the past which is finished.
So we know it is past simple.
In summary, we use the Present Perfect tense to describe a past action that has a connection to the present,
while the Past simple tense is used to describe a past action that happened at a specific time in the past
When deciding which tense to use, consider whether you are talking about a specific past
action or how an event or events from the past have and effect on the present.
Ok Zan, I hope that was helpful.
The perfect tense are very difficult, and it is used in a lot of ways and there is not
time in a single video to talk about all of them,
but I hope this goes some way to answering your question.
If you have a question like Zan, why not ask it in the comments and maybe I will answer
it in a future video.
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or you can use the card in the corner or the link in the description.
There you will find a pdf worksheet for this lesson that you can download
and another video to go with the worksheet.
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