PRESENT PERFECT - EPISODE 1 Carol Tips

#TAPESCRIPT### 

Hello everyone! This is Teacher Carol Pinho and this is our new episode of Carol Tips! 

Today, we will start a series of Podcasts about Present Perfect. 

Last episode was about Simple Past. It is interesting if you study that one first. In case you haven’t done that yet, I suggest you go there and listen first! 

As we saw, Simple Past is used to talk about things that happened in the past, but the period must be SPECIFIC and OVER, which means, we have to know when the action occurred and the period of the sentence must be a time that is over, finished. For example: 

I moved to Bahia in 2016. (I inform when the action occurred: 2016 and this period is over, right?) or 

He didn’t work at that company last year. 

Talking about structure, when we use PRESENT PERFECT, we use the auxiliary verb TO HAVE: Remember that we use HAVE for I, YOU, WE and THEY and HAS for HE, SHE and IT. After the auxiliary verb, we use the 3rd column of the verbs, which is called PAST PARTICIPLE: 

For example 

go - went - gone 

see - saw - seen 

make - made - made 

dance - danced - danced 

PRESENT PERFECT, different from Simple Past, is used to talk about events that occurred in the past, but when the PERIOD IS NOT SPECIFIC or when the PERIOD IS NOT OVER. When we talk about NOT SPECIFIC TIME IN THE PAST, it means that we talk about an action that happened at some point in the past, but we don’t inform when, for example: 

I have studied at USP 

My husband has had a publicity agency 

We have lived in São Paulo

All of those things have occurred in my life, but I don’t tell you when exactly. 

It is important to say that we only use this for people who are alive, because their lifetime is an open period. When we talk about dead people, we use SIMPLE PAST, even when we don’t say when the actions happened, seeing that the person’s lifetime is OVER, so the period is OVER. For instance: 

My grandfather lived in Santos.

My grandmother had 11 children 

My great-grandfather worked as a wagon driver. 

All these people already passed, which means, they died. Their life period is OVER, is CLOSED. I don’t tell when these events occurred, but I know the period is OVER. 

The other use for PRESENT PERFECT is when we talk about actions that happened (in the past), but they are inside a period that is not OVER. For example: TODAY, THIS WEEK, THIS MONTH, THIS YEAR, IN THE LAST 10 YEARS, THIS DECADE, etc. 

I say…. 

I drank coffee yesterday. (using SIMPLE PAST, because both my action and the period are over) 

but I say…. 

I have drunk coffee today 

My daughter has read a book this week (using PRESENT PERFECT because TODAY and THIS WEEK are NOT OVER, even though my coffee and my daughter’s reading are over) 

In negative sentences we use the NEGATIVE AUXILIARY VERBS, HAVEN’T or HASN’T: 

I haven’t had breakfast today. 

My son hasn’t done homework this week. 

In INTERROGATIVE sentences, we use the auxiliary verbs before the subject: 

Have you eaten any fruit today? 

Has she lived abroad in the last 10 years? 

Where have you been to this week? 

What have you done today? 

Note that, in PRESENT PERFECT, we use the PRINCIPAL VERB in PAST PARTICIPLE (or 3rd COLUMN) in all sentences, affirmative, negative and interrogative! 

That 's it! Hope you liked it. In our next episode we will talk more about PRESENT PERFECT. Remember to follow us on Instagram. Search for @carolpinhoefl. We are also on Youtube. See you on our next Carol Tips!