PAST SIMPLE vs. PRESENT PERFECT - What's the Difference? - #1 Most Common Error - English Grammar

Hi and welcome back.

In this lesson, I will show you how

to avoid the most common mistake that people make with

the past simple and present perfect tenses, and how to

use the two tenses correctly.

We will do an exercise to really understand the

concept, and there is a quiz to test your understanding.

So let’s start.

Have a look at these five sentences.

Some of the sentences are wrong.

Stop the video, try to make the

corrections, then play the video again and check.

Alright, actually, I tricked you a little bit with that.

All of these sentences are wrong.

That’s because, they all talk about a single,

finished action in the past.

You can see this on the timeline.

The action can be at any time in the past – it

can be 1998 or it can be last week or even yesterday.

But if you mention the time for a

finished action, then you MUST use the past simple –

not the present perfect.

Notice that in all of these sentences, there is a strong

focus on the time when the action happened.

So when do you use the present perfect?

You can use it if the action happened

recently, and you want to focus on the action and not

the time.

In our five sentences, the first three

are not recent, they happened further back in the past.

But if I bought a house just two weeks ago, or last week,

I can say “I have bought a house.”

That means I have bought the house recently.

So if I say to you, “Hey guess

what!

I have bought a house!” then I am giving you good

news.

I’m focusing on buying the house.

I’m not talking about the time because it’s

not important.

If you want to know the time, you can ask “When did you buy

it?”

Then I can say “I bought it two weeks ago” or “I

bought it last week.”

Notice, again, to mention the time,

we use the past simple.

Alright, I’m now going to give you a test to see if you

can use these two tenses correctly.

Just remember: if the past time is important,

then use the past simple.

If the time is not important,

use the present perfect.

You see three dialogues on the screen.

In each sentence, I want you to choose the

correct form of the verb.

Stop the video, think about your answers, then play the

video again and check.

Alright, let’s discuss the answers.

Number one is “Hey Sabina, your package has

arrived.

Here, Ruth is giving news, so there’s no need to

mention the time.

For this reason, we use the present

perfect tense.

In number two, “When did it arrive?”

We want to use the past simple here

because this question asks about the specific time that

the action happened.

Number three is “It arrived this

morning.”

because here Ruth says exactly when it happened

– this morning, so the past simple is correct.

Number four – “Hi Paul.

Great news.

I have passed my exams.”

In number five, “Congrats!

When did the results come out?”

Number six is “They came out last

night”.

Number seven is “Have you ever been to Argentina?”

Here, we don’t mention a time because the question asks

about life experience.

The time is not important.

So it’s like asking: “In your

life, have you ever visited Argentina?”

‘Been’ means ‘visited’ here.

Number eight is “No, I haven’t.

Have you?”

And number nine – “Yes, I went there on vacation in

2010.”

Here, we want the past simple because the time is

mentioned – 2010.

How many answers did you get right?

Let me know in the comments section below.

I’d like to thank five of our

viewers for sending in the request for this lesson:

Michael Cygnus, Sourav Sagar, Alberto Linhares, Yogesh

Dwivedi, and Manish Chauthani.

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