How to use Present Perfect in English - Deep Dive
2024-12-01 23 min
Description & Show Notes
The present perfect tense can spark great conversations with questions like "Have you ever...?", but it often trips up learners of English. In this episode, we break down when we use it and share key “signal words” and tips for mastering it. Whether you're an English language enthusiast or learner, this episode offers valuable insights you won't want to miss!
- Introduction to present perfect tense (0:00 - 0:47)
- Birgit’s explanation of present perfect (0:48 - 4:37)
- Rebecca’s perspective on teaching present perfect (4:38 - 7:06)
- Dave’s input on present perfect in news and media (7:07 - 8:34)
- Importance of present perfect for learners (8:44 - 10:19)
- Examples of present perfect usage (10:20 - 11:34)
- Common signal words: “already”, “yet”, and “so far” (11:35 - 12:43)
- The role of "since" and "for" (12:44 - 13:36)
- “Ever” and “never” (13:37 - 13:46)
- Present perfect for small talk and common usage (13:46 - 14:53)
- Comparing English and German grammar (14:54 - 16:21)
- Present perfect in British vs. American English (16:22 - 17:18)
- Key signal words for present perfect (17:19 - 18:30)
- Using present perfect with "this week, this year" (18:31 - 19:41)
- The importance of curiosity in language learning (19:42 - 21:55)
- Using technology for language learning (21:56 - 23:24)
Das Present Perfect Tense kann mit Fragen wie „Have you ever...?“ großartige Unterhaltungen anregen, aber es stellt Englischlernenden oft ein Bein. In dieser Folge gehen wir der Frage nach, wann wir es verwenden, und geben wichtige „Signalwörter“ und Tipps für seine Beherrschung. Egal, ob Sie die englische Sprache lieben oder lernen, diese Folge bietet wertvolle Einblicke, die Sie nicht verpassen sollten!
- Einführung in das Present Perfect Tense (0:00 - 0:47)
- Birgits Erklärung des Present Perfect (0:48 - 4:37)
- Rebeccas Perspektive zum Unterrichten des Present Perfect (4:38 - 7:06)
- Daves Beitrag zum Present Perfect in Nachrichten und Medien (7:07 - 8:34)
- Die Bedeutung des Present Perfect für Lernende (8:44 - 10:19)
- Beispiele für die Verwendung des Present Perfect (10:20 - 11:34)
- Gängige Signalwörter: „bereits“, ‚noch‘ und ‚bis jetzt‘ (11:35 - 12:43)
- Die Rolle von „seit“ und „für“ (12:44 - 13:36)
- „Immer“ und ‚nie‘ (13:37 - 13:46)
- Das Perfekt der Gegenwart für Smalltalk und allgemeinen Gebrauch (13:46 - 14:53)
- Englische und deutsche Grammatik im Vergleich (14:54 - 16:21)
- Perfekt im britischen vs. amerikanischen Englisch (16:22 - 17:18)
- Wichtige Signalwörter für das Present Perfect (17:19 - 18:30)
- Verwendung des Present Perfect mit „this week, this year“ (18:31 - 19:41)
- Die Bedeutung der Neugierde beim Sprachenlernen (19:42 - 21:55)
- Einsatz von Technologie beim Sprachenlernen (21:56 - 23:24)
Transcript
(Transcribed by TurboScribe.ai. Go Unlimited to remove this message.) Hi, and welcome to the 3 English Experts.
I'm Birgit.
I'm Dave.
And I'm Rebecca.
And welcome to this episode.
3 English Experts is your English podcast to help you speak better English and create a positive and happy mindset for your English learning journey.
Hello, everyone.
And today we're looking at a very important grammar aspect.
And so for that reason, I will hand over very shortly to Birgit.
But I think it's one that we will all agree, the three of us, that it causes the most headaches for German learners and learners generally of English, because it is so complicated.
And there's also these little bits in the English language where we use them.
And do we use them in the right time and the right place?
So I'd like Birgit just to kick us off with a little explanation.
And then we can talk about it generally as a team.
Birgit, what's it all about?
Okay, thank you, David.
I don't think you have mentioned it, it's present perfect.
And the name is not really important for people, because it's always so confusing and difficult to remember what a grammar tense is called.
But of course, when you're interested in learning language, maybe it does help to know present perfect.
This comes up again.
And it's rather difficult, as David says.
That's true.
A lot of people get headaches or they try to avoid it.
That's what I often say.
And that's what I check when I start with a learner.
Is he or she capable of actively using present perfect or not?
You see, the problem is with this tense that we don't have anything similar in our German language concept.
When we talk about past, we can express that in a very different way.
We don't have to think about has an action really ended or is it still going on?
So this comes into it's important here with the present perfect tense.
I will give you an example just to maybe make clear where the problems are.
Just imagine a situation when somebody comes into the room and you ask the person, wo bist du gewesen in German?
So the most natural thing for British people would be to say, where have you been?
Sometimes this is tricky for learners because when you haven't understood, really don't use present perfect tense.
What do you do?
You try to express that maybe in past tense, but that doesn't sound quite right.
And the explanation is because it's got an importance for the person who's in the room wanting to know where you have been, but you're not talking about a moment in the past.
And we will talk about signal words in a moment because this is really helping learners to use present perfect when you get started.
So maybe I should just very shortly explain what present perfect really is.
As a grammatical tense, you use have plus the participle perfect, it's the third form
of the verb, and, or has, if it's a singular first person, he, she, it, has plus dann,
have plus send, but you can't really, you shouldn't really translate that to habe gemacht
because you can, in our language, in German, you could say, ich habe das gestern gemacht,
ich habe das vor drei Wochen gemacht, and that's the point, you can't say that or shouldn't
say that in English language, because that's simple past tense.
Okay, now let's hand over to Rebecca for a while, because this is how I explain it as a, I have understood, I have understand why it's so important.
So I have a, maybe I have a special view on this because I know it's so difficult to understand, but what do you think as a native British person to teach Germans?
Yeah, I think I totally agree.
First of all, it's very confusing.
I think what I find is they understand the one where you say something started in the past and it hasn't finished.
So I have lived in Frankfurt for 25 years.
It's clear, I'm still here, and when you explain that, you know, you have to say, I have worked for this company for 25 years or for five years, they understand the concept that it's not finished, nicht abgeschlossen, it's still going on.
I think the tricky one is the one like you said, where have you been?
They would just say, well, why can't I say, where were you?
You know, why do I have to say, where have you been?
And the point, I know there is this like explanation of how it's connected to now, but I always say to keep it really simple, kein abgeschlossener Zeitangabe.
Not where were you yesterday evening?
Where did you go last weekend?
Then I've got a fixed finished time in the sentence.
So where did you go yesterday?
I went to the cinema, because it's clear we're talking about yesterday.
Yesterday is finished.
When you just say, where have you been, kein Zeitangabe, there's no time connected to that.
It's just like, where have you been?
Because it's not important.
Time is not important.
It's just where have you been?
Oh, I've just been to the shops.
I've just been to get my lunch.
And you're not telling me when you did it or exactly what time you did it.
It's just, I have picked up my lunch.
And I think this is the kind of tricky one.
So I always say it's a finished action, because I'm back now.
I've been out and I'm back.
It is a finished action, but there's no time attached to it.
So for example, I would say, oh, guess what?
I have bought a new sofa.
I'm not telling you when I bought it.
I bought it six weeks ago and now it has arrived, but I bought it ago in the past and the buying is finished.
But when I say just, I've bought a new sofa, it's new information, but it's not relevant when I bought it.
Nobody cares.
It's just, oh, guess what?
I have bought a new sofa.
So it's a finished activity, but with no abgeschlossenzeit.
That's why I always say there's no ended time, finished time attached to that sentence.
Have you sent the report?
Yes, I have sent the report.
It's not relevant when I sent it.
It's just, I just want to know, have you done it?
Yes, I have done it.
So that's when I would say you also need present perfect, finished activity with no time.
Dave?
Yeah, I just want to say there exactly when it's like new information and that's also quite important.
The result now, if you like, you can look at it that way.
And this is why if you read news articles online carefully, you will often see in the first sentence, often, not always, it depends on the situation, of course, that something has happened.
Okay.
And it's just then the new news, the event happened in the recent past.
But this is the new information to give to you.
And what you often find then afterwards, when it talks about something in the past, it will then go into the past tense because it then, as Rebecca said, is specific by because it gives you a time frame or when it happened yesterday or two days ago or whatever.
But the new information is new and it's information.
So it's in this present perfect form.
Also, maybe to make it a little bit easier, I often call the present perfect past present.
I don't know if that really makes sense, but I think maybe it helps just this idea of something that started in the past and it's ongoing to the present or it's got something to do with the present.
And let's face it, present perfect.
What really does that mean?
Yeah.
I mean, the present is perfect.
Definitely not perfect.
So I think sometimes it can be a bit confusing when you, with the names, right?
At least.
Yeah, absolutely.
Yeah.
And why the question maybe the listeners might ask, so why should I bother at all?
Why is this important?
And it is important, believe me, because we use it all the time.
When you just imagine situations, somehow you see somebody, as Rebecca said, you don't talk about a moment in the past, really.
You talk about things that happen.
You see something new and then you can't really do without.
And I had learners, I have had learners who came to me and said, oh, my English doesn't sound, I'm not happy.
And it was just because they were not able to use present perfect.
And that was the eye opener.
That was the one thing that really helped them speak better English.
Believe me, that's true.
And one more thing I think is important here to understand how you build and then just really follow the rule, no matter what verb you use.
You see somebody coming into the room, the verb, the vocabulary is to have a haircut.
So I have had a haircut.
That's also very confusing, but that's just simply following the rule.
Have as an auxiliary verb plus have as a main verb, have had.
Once you understand that, and that's really a big step towards good English or better English.
And that's really fact, I think.
I completely agree with that.
Sorry, Dave.
Yeah.
No, just when you have, have and had, right?
Yeah.
It speaks everybody out.
I've had, I've had, I've had.
Yeah.
You don't hear that.
Yeah.
Okay.
You can also say I've had, so you can put the I've had obviously together, but you can say, yeah, I have had a terrible day.
You know, that works.
It's perfect.
It's not perfect.
The grammar's perfect.
Yeah.
But I think big, I think you're absolutely right.
But yeah, it is one of these things that when you get it right, it makes such a difference to how your English sounds.
And so it's worth, like you say, it's worth time.
It's worth investing a bit of time to get your head around it.
Yeah.
And figure it out.
So one of the things I use to help my learners learn this is using signal words.
I'm a big fan of signal words.
So for example, the word already, someone said to me, she said, but why is it present perfect?
Because it's finished.
If I've already done it, it's finished.
Right.
And I said, yeah, it is a really good argument, but already takes present perfect.
So I have already cleaned the windows.
I have already done it.
Yeah.
So Dave, you were going to talk about some more of these signal words.
Yeah.
Well, I suppose with the word already, what automatically goes with that, for example, is the word yet.
So have you finished the project yet as a question?
And then maybe as an answer, yes, I've already finished it.
Or the negative, often the yet is used in the negative and in the question.
So in this case, I haven't finished it yet, but I've already done half.
So again, the already may be in a more positive structure.
Yeah.
And also, of course, you could say, how much have you done so far?
So you can use so far as well, linked up with the yet and the already.
Yeah, I finished about half of it already, or I've done about half so far, however you want to say it.
So they're just quite linked ones with the already, the yet, so far, or up until now.
Also, you could use in this context too.
So that's certainly two or three that go with that one.
Next one.
I think the big one is since, right?
Since and for, yes.
Since is a good one, yeah.
Very typical, because in one of our last episodes, we had this CV application.
Maybe people don't ask, seit wann haben sie hier oder arbeiten sie hier?
But since I've been in this company, since I have been, bin hier seit.
Very often you hear, I am here, I am here, I've been here, I've been here.
Since is a good one.
I think since is, and it's also clear that since in German as well, is not finished, isn't it?
Like seit is nicht abgeschlossen.
It's not vor drei Jahre, it's seit, you know, I'm still here.
So I think that's clear that it's not a finished activity.
Yeah.
And have you ever, of course, is a great typical small talk thing.
Oh, have you ever been here before?
Have you ever eaten schnitzel?
Have you ever done this before?
Have you ever done a presentation in English?
So have you ever is a really nice question construction normally used in questions and always takes present perfect.
Yeah.
On that one though, I often say this is kind of like a one liner in the sense that after that, often you go and talk in the past.
So maybe you say, have you ever been to England?
Oh yes, I have.
Because then often then you give a specific time.
So last year I went to England.
Then of course, if it says last year, it means the past.
So you've got the details.
Yeah.
And you've got the details of specific times.
If of course you don't provide the specific times, then you stay with the present perfect.
Yeah, I've been to Britain.
I've been there many times, even as well.
Yeah, exactly.
Have you seen that film?
Yes, I have seen that film.
Nobody cares when I saw it.
It's just like, yeah, I've seen that.
Yeah.
Sorry.
Yeah.
What?
No, sorry.
What has just come to my mind?
A thought just it.
A thought has come to my mind.
Has bubbled up.
Yes.
Now we're talking about this because I always try to look at it from different angles.
We were talking about how difficult present perfect is for German learners when they want to handle English in a good way.
Vice versa, it should then be very simple for you to speak German because you don't have to worry about it.
Has it ever come to your mind that you sort of, oh, look at that.
That aspect is so easy in German language.
I have three words for you Birgit.
Der, die, das.
I can't say anymore.
Okay.
If you think German is simple, well, let's get into genitive, dative, accusative, movement towards.
Wow.
And the adjective endings.
Oh, goodness.
So this is the thing, you know, if you don't know your der, die, das, your adjective endings, it's like, forget about it because you can't even do that because you don't know if it's masculine, feminine or neuter.
So, but you're not worried.
I know what you're trying to say, Birgit.
But there are so many aspects to when you learn German.
Okay.
That's yeah.
And that's interesting for learners because there's always something in the English, I think, I believe.
This is one of the big ones.
But we need to have to mention the Americans here, Dave or Rebecca.
I mean, in my experience, a lot of Americans or American English doesn't always use present perfect.
So you will hear, you know, we would say, oh, have you seen that film?
Yeah, yeah, I've seen that film a few times.
It's one of my favourite films.
And they would say, oh, yeah, I saw that.
I saw that, you know, and they would like, sorry, that's my terrible American accent.
And they would say, I saw instead of I've seen that.
Yeah, yeah, I did that.
Yeah.
Have you done that?
Yeah, I did that.
I don't know if it's everybody.
I don't know if it's a standard thing, but you definitely hear Americans skipping present perfect.
So yeah, don't be surprised.
I teach my clients British English, so.
Yeah.
And it's good to be able to tackle present perfect because you need it in some situation you can't do without.
I always say you can't do without it.
So I don't know.
I mean, maybe they don't completely scrap it.
Maybe it's just in certain situations they don't use it.
I really don't know.
We'd have to ask an American.
But so you definitely need it.
But you might if you're watching a film or something, don't be surprised if you hear, you know, that they skip it.
It could be just a local kind of thing.
Yeah.
There are some more keywords, guys, that we haven't covered yet.
Oh, sorry.
Go on.
You mustn't forget recently, lately and confusingly in the last few days, weeks, months, because you've got that word last in there.
Yeah, then you think last is the past tense, but it's not.
So have you seen each other recently?
Yes, we have.
No, we haven't.
Again, maybe could be a one liner because you often then go into the past.
But OK, there's recently, lately and in the last few weeks, last few months.
Maybe if you're talking about the business, the graphs, the trends, how things grown in the last few months, how things increased or whatever in the last few weeks.
Also quite a useful one as well.
Yeah.
So we will put a list in the show notes of the signal words.
That's for sure.
Yeah.
And the other one is, of course, with the this, this week, this month, this year, when the time isn't over again, maybe a little bit tricky to get your head around.
But if the time isn't over, so, for example, I don't know, today as we are recording this, it's a Friday, guys.
So how's your week been this week?
Right.
How's your week been this week?
So the week isn't over.
Of course, if it was over, then you say, how was your week last week or whatever?
Yeah.
So if a time when something isn't over, then you'd use the present perfect with this, this week, this month, this year.
Yeah.
But again, Dave, that's difficult for learners to figure out how's your week been?
How has, yes, this apostrophe S thing to understand?
You really have to look at that because that's very often people say, oh, that's for is, how apostrophe S can also be for has.
So it's when you're in a learning process, it's important to mention that, to understand that first, because that's how natives, yeah, David, how's your week been?
Reflect on that, try to figure out what the person is really saying here when you listen to, I don't know, there's a very good podcast also of BBC six minute English for beginners learners.
It's not bad.
Very good.
I don't know how they use that.
Do they explain it?
I don't know.
I think so.
Yeah.
I've listened to it a few times.
I think they do explain these things.
Yeah.
But again, it's often as a native, you do shorten things.
And so that's something that students, I guess, have to get used to in a way that things are shortened and you've just got to try to figure out, okay, is that the shortened has, or is that the shortened is?
And hopefully then with time you get, ah, okay.
How's your week been?
Okay.
Yeah.
It's as Rebecca.
I think it just all goes back to this, figuring out this interest, isn't it?
You know, you know, when I hear something in German or Japanese or whatever, and I think, what, what was that?
Why did they say it like that?
You know, and you have to investigate a little detective work and figure out, well, ah, okay.
They used it, that verb, and they used that tense because it wasn't finished.
You know, you have to kind of, and again, this just comes from interest.
If you're not interested in the language, you won't spend that time.
Your brain will not use that energy to figure it out.
So just being curious, like we talked before, you know, being curious, like wanting to know how things work is a good skill here.
It's just, how was your week been?
That's a tricky one.
I cannot imagine any of my learners actually coming up with that spontaneously.
I have to say it's just, that's too difficult, I think.
But when you think about it, how has your week been?
It's not actually that tricky, but I think it's just this understanding first, figuring it out and then trying to use it yourself is the, is the trick.
Very good point.
Yeah.
I think at the, I mean, as the app guy, maybe just to close up from my perspective, at least, it's this idea of asking ChatGPT if you don't want to use a book, what it can do for you.
And I just put into ChatGPT just a few minutes ago, create me a quiz.
And so that I can practise this.
And it did do, I just gave a part one with filling the gaps.
It's not really very difficult, but it's just a little bit of training.
And this is something you can do, as we say in English, on the fly, when you're on the move, if you've got ChatGPT on your mobile or you're at work and you have time, you can always have a look through these things.
And so you're not always reliant on a book or something like this.
Maybe it's just a little added tip at the end, try using ChatGPT for these things.
But looking into books is also nice.
My book.
I was just going to say, don't be against books, be against books.
Of course, of course, of course.
Really put a lot of effort into trying to explain it.
And there's always exercises.
And the one, the big five tenses is very only, only 150 pages, not very long and very compact.
And with some exercise.
So there's both.
Exactly.
Both is super.
Best way to go.
Absolutely.
So that was our deep dive into Present Perfect.
Hope you found it useful.
Next time it's Christmas again and we are going to repeat our Christmas quiz.
This time we are focussing on Christmas songs and Christmas films will be a lot of fun.
So hope you join us again.
Take care and bye for now.
Thank you so much for pressing play today.
If you have any comments, questions or perhaps suggestions for future episodes, feel free to contact us at our website, 3englishexperts.com.
Have a great day and see you next time.