English Café: Present Perfect Verb Tense

Advanced Details: Present perfect verb tense

We use the present perfect verb tense, along with words like today, this week, to talk about an action (that is) performed

during a period that has not yet finished.

• She has been to EnCo twice this week (= and the week isn’t over yet.)
• I have lived in Lankrabue since 1984 (= and I still live there.)

We also use the present perfect to talk about unspecified repeated actions in the past, with words like so far, until now, before.

• We have visited the S1 Project several times before. (= and we don’t say when we visited S1.)
• So far, I have worked offshore for 12 years. (= and we don’t know exactly when I worked there.)

On the other hand, the simple past tense is used when the time period HAS finished.

• I saw 3 movies last week (last week is finished).

The Present Perfect is often used when giving recent news:

• Martin has crashed his car again.

But, the Simple Past is used when giving older information:

• Martin crashed his car last year.

Finally, please remember that the present perfect NEVER uses the same time expressions that you use in the past simple tense, such as yesterday, a week ago, last night.