The Present Perfect

The Present Perfect

Here are the three main uses of the present perfect.

Experiences

An interesting and lively topic of conversation is talking about someone’s experiences.  Whether it is career history or travel adventures, experiences shape us and make us the people we are.  Working in the luxury travel industry probably means that you have got the travel bug.  And as a hospitality professional, you often recount stories of your global travels, working in some of the world’s most beautiful and exotic places.

To ask about experiences, we use the following structure:

Have you (ever) + verb3?

Has he/she it (ever) + verb3?

Have you (ever) visited Canada?

Have you (ever) eaten Polish food?

Has she been to New York?

The experience/story is the most important thing.

When the experience took place isn’t as important.

This structure is called The Present Perfect.

It’s a tricky verb form for many students to use because in many languages it simply doesn’t exist. It is also often presented in grammar books in comparison with the past simple.

Let’s look at it conceptually and pragmatically. The Present Perfect can also be called

‘The Present Summative.’

It captures your experience from the past up to ‘now’ (the moment of speaking). Conceptually, this is difficult to grasp.
So just remember…When you are asking someone about their experiences and you’re not interested in when but ‘what’, you can use a present perfect question.

The Unfinished Past

To talk about something we started doing in the past and we continue to do now…

“I’ve been working in my hotel for 5 years.” = I started 5 years ago. I still work there now.

Here are some more examples of unfinished past actions.

“Our manager has been working with us for 10 years.”
“I’ve been studying English all my life.”
“I’ve been living in Tokyo since 2011.”

The structure we use for unfinished past is:

Have/Has + been + verb1 (bare infinitive: action verb) + ‘ing’

This is called ‘The Present Perfect Continuous’.

We often use the question: “How long have you been…?”

Present Result

We also use the Present Perfect to talk about Present Result.
This means something which happened in the past and is still important now, in the present.

Have a look at these examples:

“Mr Smith has lost his room key.”
“The manager has gone home.”
“Oh! You have had a haircut!”

Each example is about something which happened in the past, and has a clear importance in the present/at the time of speaking. It is important because at the time of speaking we can observe it’s present result:

“Mr Smith has lost his room key.” = Mr Smith doesn’t have his key.
“The manager has gone home.” = The manager isn’t here.
“Oh! You have had a haircut!” = Your hair is different.

To talk about present result, we use the present perfect.
have / has + verb3 (past participle)
To summarise.  Present Perfect for

1. Experiences
2. Unfinished Past
3. Present Result