Grammar Level 3- Lesson Three
In this grammar lesson, you learn about The Present Perfect in English and how to use it in your English conversation and writing. Just follow examples and write them down a few times to learn them very well. After finishing this lesson, you should work on its quiz.
Grammar Recap
In our previous lesson, we covered the Have Present & Past If you just landed on this page, we suggest that you complete our previous lesson including its quizzes before continuing on this lesson.
Requirement Lessons
There is no required lessons for working and learning this lesson.
S + Has or Have + the Past Participle
Singular
I have lived
You have lived
He has lived
She has lived
It has lived
Plural
We have lived
You have lived
They have lived
The present perfect is used for three reasons:
- To describe an action that goes from the past up to the present moment.
- To describe an action that occurred sometime in the past but the exact time is unknown.
- To describe an action that was repeated many times in the past.
Contractions are usually used with this tense:
I’ve lived, you’ve lived, he’s lived, she’s lived, etc.
1. I have lived in Minnesota for 28 years.
I’ve lived here since 1991.
2. You have heard this song before.
You’ve listened to a lot of music, haven’t you?
3. She has cleaned her bathroom twice this week.
She’s also cleaned her kitchen.
(She’s = she has)
Don’t confuse the present perfect with the past tense. The present perfect is used with unspecified periods of time in the past or to show the passage of time. Here’s an example of a mistake:
She has cleaned her bathroom yesterday. (incorrect)
This mistake specifies when she did something which you can only do with a past tense. Here’s the correction:
She cleaned her bathroom yesterday. (correct)
Sometimes people learning English use the past tense when they should use the present perfect. Here’s an example of three common mistakes.
I lived in Arizona for 10 years.
This is okay for past situations, but if a person still lives in that particular place, the present perfect tense should be used.
Here’s another mistake:
I am living in Arizona 10 years. (wrong)
I live in Arizona 10 years. (wrong)
This person wants to say that he moved to Arizona 10 years ago and is still there. In this case the present perfect is a good choice:
I have lived in Arizona for 10 years. (correct!)
or…
I have lived in Arizona since 1996.
Notice also that for and since are often used in the present perfect. For is used with numbers of days, weeks, months, years, centuries, etc., and since is used with specified days, months and years.
Quiz for The Present Perfect
Now that you learned your new lesson, it is time to go to the The Present Perfect page and finish your quiz. While working on your quiz, you can always go back to its lesson to refresh your memory.
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Next Grammar Lesson
In our next lesson, we will cover the Present Perfect Negative Before moving to the next lesson, we suggest that you complete this lesson including its quizzes.
Related Grammar Lessons
None
Grammar Level 3 Outline
If you wish to explore all lessons that are covered in HiCafe Grammar Level 3, you can visit the Grammar Level 3 Outline page.
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