Past Simple & Present Perfect

Hi. My name is Rebecca, and in today's lesson, I'm going to show you a way to differentiate

between two very common tenses used in English, which are the past simple and the present

perfect. Another lesson about that? Yes. There are a number of lessons on that subject, and

that's because it can be a confusing issue, but I'm going to give you a particular perspective

which I hope will help you to differentiate between these two very common tenses. All

right? So let's have a look.

So let's start by talking about the past simple tense in English. When do we use the past

simple tense? We use the past simple tense to talk about anything that has already happened

in the past, at a finished time in the past. So if we look at this graphic representation

of the past simple, you'll see here's the event in the past, it's finished and it's

over, and here's now. There's no connection. All right? As such. This event is finished

and over, it's an action that finished and is over in the past. Okay? On the contrary,

the present perfect talks about something that happened in the past, and it's still

true now. So here, the emphasis is on the length of time, right? And on the condition

that we are talking about that exists between now, between a time in the past and now. Whereas

here, we simply talked about an action in the past. In present perfect, we're talking

about a condition or a state or a status that exists between the past and now. And in fact,

it includes the past and now. Okay? Let me give you some examples and I hope you'll

understand a little bit better how this works.

So, for example, when we're using the past simple, your question would be something like

this. "When did you get engaged?" All right? Because you're talking about a particular

point of time in the past, you ask using the question word "when". "When did you get engaged?"

The same question asked in the present perfect would be a little bit different. It would

be, "How long have you been engaged?" "How long have you been engaged?" Well, we've been

engaged for one month or two months or two years. Okay? So here, the answer would be

that we have been engaged for a period of time. Here, the answer would be a particular

date when you got engaged. All right?

Let's look at some more common examples. "When did you get married?" Or in present perfect,

the question would be, "How long have you been married?" Here, you just want to know

actually when it happened, and here, you want to know the length of time or how long somebody

has been married. All right? You can use this in good and bad situations in life. Okay?

"When did you get divorced?" Or, "How long have you been divorced?" Okay?

Another one, "When did you graduate?" All right? Or, present perfect, "How long have

you been out of school?" In North America, when we say "out of school", we don't mean

elementary school or high school. We mean also university and college. All right? It's

referred to as school.

In the past simple, we could say, "When did you get this job?" In present perfect, we

could say, "How long have you worked here?" Or, "How long have you been employed?" You

don't always have to use the word "been". Okay? You can also use whatever verb you need,

but in this case, we could say, "How long have you worked here?" "How long have you

been employed?" All right?

Again, bad news, "When did you lose your job?" "When?" Now, we're asking the day or the date

or the month, but if you want to know how long somebody didn't have their job, then

we would say, "How long have you been out of work?" Or, "How long have you been unemployed?"

Okay? "When did you move to Toronto?" Okay? That's one question. Present perfect question

would be, "How long have you been in Toronto?" Okay? Again, the question is asking for different

kinds of information. Here, the question is asking for the action and the time exactly

when something happened, and here, the question is asking about a condition or how long that

condition existed or that status existed. All right?

Let's look at a few other examples. "When did you hear the news?" Or, "How long have

you known the news?" In this case, you have to change the verb to make sense, for it to

make sense. Right? Or, "When did you meet John?" That would be a past simple question.

"When did you meet John?" Present perfect would be, "How long have you known John?"

Right? Because you can't keep meeting John. Once you meet him, that's finished and it's

over. Now, you know him. So, "How long have you known John?"

Let's give... Let's work on a couple of other examples. Here, if we want to ask a question,

we would say, "When did you arrive?" Right? And if you change that to present perfect,

you could say, "How long have you been here?" Right? "When did you wake up?" would become,

"How long have you been up?" Or, "How long have you been awake?" All right?

So, you see that past simple and present perfect are talking about different kinds of information,

and by understanding what information you need, you can decide whether you need to use

the past simple or the present perfect. Okay? I hope this has helped you to understand this

particular point. If you'd like to do some more practice on this subject and this topic,

we have a quiz. You can go to our website, www.engvid.com. Thanks very much. Thanks for

watching.