Present Perfect Simple: Introduction

Hello, 

The tenses we have revised and also learnt this year have been the present simple, the present continuous, the past simple and the past continuous. Now it is time to learn a new tense, the present perfect simple, which is our «pretérito perfecto compuesto» in Spanish. 

This is one of the most difficult English tenses for Spanish students, but with some tips you can use it in the right way. 

Here is an infographic which can help you focus on the main uses at first glance (a primera vista). 

STRUCTURE

Click on this link  to have access to the structure of the present perfect simple. 

USES

Here are the two main uses we are learning this year: 

-Life experiences

1)These EXPERIENCES are actions or events that happened sometime during a person’s life and are finished. We don’t say when the experience happened, and the person needs to be alive now. In this use we can use the present perfect simple with “ever”/”never”

       e.g. Have you ever travelled abroad? No, I haven´t. I have never travelled abroad.

       e.g. I have never lived in London.

-News/Recent events 

2) We can also use the present perfect to talk about something that happened recently. This is common when we want to introduce news or recent events and we often use the words ‘just / yet / already ‘. However, the past simple is also correct in these cases, especially in US English.

e.g. The Queen hasn´t given a speech yet. (=aún/todavía)

e.g. Have you finished yet? (=ya)

e.g. I’ve just seen Lucy. (=acabar de)

e.g. The Mayor has already announced a new plan for the railways. (=ya)

Position of “just”: between “have/has” and the past participle in affirmative sentences.

Position of “yet”: at the end of the sentence in negative and interrogative sentences.

Position of “already”: between “have/has” and the past participle in affirmative sentences