Learn English Tenses: PAST SIMPLE & PRESENT PERFECT

Hello, and welcome back to engVid. My name is Benjamin, for those of you who don't know

me. Welcome. In today's lesson, we are going to be looking at the difference between the

past simple and the present perfect, both of which are used to talk about things that

have happened. Now, what I'll be doing is I'll be showing you how these tenses are formed.

I'll be recognizing which is correct usage. I'll be sharing with you some time markers,

which are phrases that indicate when things have happened, so that you feel really confident

in using these two tenses. That's my intention. So, it's a grammar lesson. It's not massively

advanced. You don't have to be studying academic English to be studying - to be interested

in grammar. Grammar is kind of the skeleton behind the language, so it's important that

we all have a good grasp of it, whether we're studying for an exam or not. So, let's get

going.

Now, we use the past simple to - for two main purposes, to talk about completed actions

in the past. I spoke with my friend yesterday. It's finished. You know, it's not coming into

the present. It happened yesterday, and it's finished. It can refer to specific moments

in the past. So, I left for Canada last Wednesday. Yep, so I've got a time phrase to indicate

when exactly something happened. So, how do we form this tense? We have the base verb,

and then the -ed version of it. So, "I created a YouTube channel." Yeah, it's finished. Okay?

I did it. I - obviously, there are going to be irregular verbs that don't have an -ed

ending. "I ate a cake yesterday." So, it's one of the difficult things you have to contend

with in studying English is all those irregular verbs. Okay? But we're looking for the -ed

version of the verb.

What about the present perfect? Well, the present perfect connects the past to the present.

We use it to talk about life experiences that still have some importance to us. "I have

been to India." Not - you know, if we leave it in the past, "I went to India", it's like,

"Yeah, yeah, it's finished. Yeah, been there." What's the phrase? "Been there, got the t-shirt."

But if we say, "I have done something", then it's more relevant to now. It can be recent

news. "Terrorists have da-da-da-da-da-da-da." "Police have arrested da-da-da-da-da-da-da."

News doesn't have to always be negative, does it? How do we do this? The auxiliary verb,

often it's going to be "have" plus the past participle. So, for example, yeah, "Police

have arrested a strange goat." I don't know, sometimes they do. Now, I've got three sentences

here and there's only one of them which is correct, so we need to think about which is

correct and why. First one, "She finished her degree", and then it's either in 2010

or since 2010. "She finished her degree." So, she finished, it's completed, right? She

finished her degree, and it refers to a specific moment in the past. Now, if we have this one,

that is specific, yeah? In 2010. But if we have since 2010, then she's been finishing

it for, well, we're at about nine years now. It's taken her a very long time. This one

is correct. Past simple, specific moment in the past.

Second one, "It snowed since yesterday." "It has been snowing since yesterday." Right.

So, what we actually have here is the present perfect continuous, because we've got "ing"

there, yeah? So, it's something that is still, it's relevant to us now, and it's been happening

for some time, it's continuous. This is not correct. It would need to have a "has" there.

It has snowed since yesterday. No, it didn't snow. Snow, it kind of takes some time, so

that's why it's in the continuous.

Third, "Have you ever been to Bangladesh?" "You went to Bangladesh?" Now, this one seems

quite staccato. It's quite "da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da", yep? It's finished. It's "You went to Bangladesh."

It's not grammatically incorrect. It's fine, but it's not what we use when we're talking

about life experiences. Life experiences, present perfect. "Have you", there's my auxiliary

verb. There's my past participle. Okay?

Let's have a look at some time phrases, and then we'll give you folks a little bit of

an opportunity to practice this. So, we've got it, right? Past simple and the present

perfect. Remember, the past simple is a completed action, specific moment in time. So, these

phrases, these time sort of phrases, help us to speak in the correct tense between this

and this. For example, "At the weekend", that is a precise time in the past tense. "At the

weekend, I", and what did you do, past participle? "I ate a muffin. At the weekend, I ate a muffin."

Oh, come on, Benjamin. You must have done more than that. What else did you do? "I went

to the park. I caught a train." All past participles, past simple. "Throughout the 1960s, I", okay,

so it's in the past tense, specific time frame. Yeah, it's a - there's a beginning and an

end to the 1960s, thank god. Well, what did you do, or what did they do? "Throughout the

1960s, popular music enjoyed", -ed ending, "enjoyed a renaissance", a rebirth. "Enjoyed

a rebirth", let's write that on. "Enjoyed", yeah, there's no "have", but we've got a nice

-ed ending. Yeah, okay, good. "Enjoyed", okay? Great. "Enjoyed". Oh, look, don't need that

there. What was I thinking? "In 1997", what did you do in 1997? Maybe you weren't alive,

so maybe we can talk about some relative who did something in 1997. "In 1997, my mum went

to university". "Went", yeah, it's an irregular verb, past participle of the verb "to go".

"I went", there's no "have", but I've got the past participle. "When I was at school, I",

what did you do? It's finished, it's completed action in the past. "I studied hard", yep,

my -ied ending, "I studied". "Last night, I went to bed at", specific time. "Yesterday,

I read a book", finished, specific time. "Just now, I ate", another irregular verb, "ate

a meal", it was good. We were very lucky the door closed just after we got in there, otherwise

I would have been hungry.

Present perfect, kind of a more mishy-mashy, vague sort of movement between the present

and the past. "In the last few hours, I have been reading about", what have you been reading

about? "I have", yep, "been". "Have you ever been on Route 66?", "I have never been on

Route 66", "I have a little bit", I need the very end bit.

"Since", 1066, long stretch of time, "England has had some kind of political relationship

with France", "England has had some kind of". "I have already brushed my teeth", have -ed

ending, "I have", verb in the base form and then my -ed. For the past month, maybe we

could have the past perfect continuous as well, "continue", always a tricky one to spell

with all those u's and o's and things. "For the past month, I have been swimming every

day", yep, "swimming" with an -ing because we're doing a continuous action in the past.

Okay, let's have a little practice before you folks have a go at today's devilish quiz.

London, "Have you ever been to London?" Now, you might say to me in the past simple, "I

went to London in 2017." Okay, tell me about your trip, "I went here, I did this, I did

that", using the past simple. But you could also say, "Yeah, I've been to London", because

the memories of going there are still with you. "Have you ever delivered a presentation

in English?" Yeah, sure, I've delivered a presentation in English, right? So, if we

use the present perfect, you then might want to start giving us some details in the past

simple, "Yeah, I've given a presentation in English, it was for 2,000 people in the town's

museum, I spoke about this, I told them about", I'm using the past simple when I go into more

detail. Okay, so often the present perfect can be a one-sentence statement, and you fill

in the detail with the past simple. "Have you ever been to an English-speaking country?"

"Oh, yeah, of course, I have been to an English-speaking country, I went to Australia, I went to Australia

in 2006, it was a fantastic trip." Starting to get the idea? What I'd like you to do now

is head over to the engVid website, short for English Video. I'm on there, of course,

but what I want you to do is to go down and do the quiz, yep? Cement this learning in

your brain, okay? How do I do that? No, seriously, have a go at the quiz, and if you've learned

anything from today's lesson, think about subscribing to this channel, you probably

already do. Wonderful. Thanks for watching, I'll see you in the next one.