Present Perfect vs Past Simple - Learn English Tenses (Lesson 4)

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