Present Perfect or Past Simple? - English Grammar lesson

What's the difference between present perfect and past simple?

This is the most common grammar question I get

So I want to make it very, very easy so you understand and never forget.

The easiest way to understand this is in terms of time and experience.

What do I mean by that?

For example, something happened in the past, like:

he's telling his friends about his date last night.

I went out with Maria last night.

When we use specific times, specific details, we'll use past simple

"I WENT out last night"

but what else happened on this date?

"We kissed"

Again, he's using past simple because we know we're talking about last night.

We don't need to say it again.

But we do know the specific time, right?

So past simple

but then

and his friends want to say, "Yeah, we have that experience too. You're not special!"

When you say "I have this experience" you use Present Perfect.

You're not mentioning details like time or anything.

You're just saying, "I have this experience."

That's it.

Use Present Perfect.

Yeah. I've kissed Maria, too.

Okay, just checking.

We all know the form, right?

With present perfect, you use "HAVE" with I/you/we/they

or "HAS" with he/she/it and then verb3, past participle.

In this case, this is a regular verb.

So "ED" - Kissed.

I have kissed Maria too.

I mean, just remember that contractions

are always more natural when speaking English.

Yeah, I've kissed Maria too.

She also wants to say, Yeah,

I have this experience, but she won't use Present Perfect. Why?

Because remember, with a specific time past simple.

Yeah, I kissed her this morning. You're not special.

Or if you want to

say I don't have that experience,

I've never kissed Maria or I haven't kissed Maria.

That's fine, too.

When you say never, it just means in my life.

So it's really easy.

You want to say, I have that experience or I don't have that experience Present Perfect.

I have done this. I haven't done this.

If you want to say,

Yeah, I have this experience and this is exactly when you've passed.

Simple.

It's really easy.

It's that easy.

Okay, I'm lying.

There's more you want to say how many times you did something until now?

Like maybe you want to do it again in the future.

I've kissed Maria five times again.

Maybe he wants to do it again in the future.

So he'll use Present Perfect.

"I've kissed..." (Number of times)

until now, maybe again in the future.

However,

she's also saying the number of times.

Once until now.

Yeah. I only kissed Maria once.

Never again. Yeah, it's not her cup of tea.

So she counts how many times

Once. And that's until now.

However, what's the difference?

Probably won't happen again.

So for her, this action and the amount of times is completely in the past.

That's a finished, finished period.

Yes, she could use present.

Perfect, because she's still alive.

It could happen again.

But again, like everything in English, we use grammar

to show how we feel about the situation.

For her, it's not going to happen again.

So it's past simple.

Also, before we continue, can you just press like on this video?

Thanks. You're a legend.

I knew I could trust you.

You just have a trustworthy face! :)

and finally, length of time.

This is where you understand everything about the difference.

Because it's the same rule.

Again, with this.

If you want to talk about how long something happens

from a time in the past until now, for example.

"But we've been together for a month!"

Present Perfect. Why?

Because it's a length of time from the past.

Until now.

A month ago, until now.

But if the time period is in the past,

it started in the past and finished in the past.

You want to talk about how long,

Which grammar form should you use? Exactly! Past Simple!

You're really good at this.

"I dated her for a week, but that was last year."

Past Simple - length of time. Why?

Because this all happened a year ago.

It started a year ago in the past and finished in the past.

That's why we use past simple

and in fact, we don't need to use this part.

You don't even need the time reference if you use past simple.

You're saying this is a past experience and it's completely finished.

But if you use present perfect,

you're suggesting at least that it still continues now

"We've been dating."

Probably you're still together

"Yeah, we dated."

Probably It's finished. Again, though.

Grammar is not an objective truth.

It's how we understand and view the world.

God, that sounds deep. It's not meant to be.

All right, so to understand everything, let's put this in the question form.

Okay, this final example, I showed this to my class once,

and it made everyone sad.

So sorry in advance.

But you know what?

They remembered it and now you will too. So...

Imagine you see a guy playing with his dog

and you want to know "How long have you had a dog?"

And he tells you, "I've had the dog for eight years."

"He's so cute. I love him. He's everything to me!"

So you start playing with the dog.

This is so cute.

How long have you had the dog?

From a past time until now.

Present Perfect.

The exact same question that we asked here.

But now in Past Simple.

"How long did you have a dog?"

Remember asking "How long...?"

With a Past Simple means the time is finished.

"How long...?" with Present Perfect = The dog is alive.

"How long...?" with Past Simple = The dog is dead.

Yes, it's sad but now you won't forget.

So to use everything that we've learned today, for example,

I have never had a dog, but I've had a cat before.

I had my cat for like 20 years before it died.

And again.

I know it's sad, but your turn to practice in the comments.

Let me know.

Have you ever been to London?

Have you ever had a dog or a cat?

How long have you worked at your company?

and have you ever kissed anyone called Maria?

How many times have you kissed someone called Maria?

Practice this in the comments or you can practice this in my e-book.

There's a lesson on this.

You can get it right now on my Patreon Patreon.com/papateachme

It's also available on my website papateachme.com

and I'll see you in the next class! Bye!