Index of Daily Doses: http://DailyDoseOfEnglish.com
I have received a request from Jack Glick from Israel. Jack has kindly sent in a photo of himself.
Jack writes: Could you please explain the present perfect for dummies. Thanks in advance.
I have decided to make a very short, but sweet Dose to make this verb tense as easy as possible.
The present perfect is formed using the auxiliary verb to have and a main verb in the past participle.
A past participle is the third form of the verb.
Take the verb look, for instance. The root verb, the infinitive, is to look.
Look is a regular verb. All regular verbs add -ed to the root verb to make the past simple. The past simple of look, the second form, is looked.
Regular verbs also add -ed to the root verb to form the third form, the past participle. The past participle of look is looked. It is this form that we use in the present perfect tense.
Take the auxiliary verb, to have, and add the main verb, look in the third or past participle form. I have looked at Jack's request and have decided to make his Daily Dose of English.
For questions... Have you looked at Jack's request? Yes, I have looked at Jack's request, but I have not looked at the other requests.
Irregular verbs do not have an -ed ending in the past simple or the past participle form. Irregular verbs like to be a bit different.
Take the verb, eat, for instance. The root verb, or infinitive, is to eat. The past simple form is ate and the past participle form is eaten.
Once again, let's take the auxiliary verb have and add it to the main verb eat to make the present perfect tense. Have you eaten? Yes, I have eaten, or No, I haven't eaten.
So, that's how you make the present perfect tense for questions, affirmatives and negatives. But what do we use the present perfect for?
I have made over 140 Daily Doses of English. This sentence uses the present perfect form. It has the auxiliary verb have and the past participle of the verb to make. Make is an irregular verb, like eat.
The sentence, I have made over 140 Daily Doses of English does not tell us when. It simply refers to an unspecified time in the past. It does suggest that I have not finished making Daily Doses of English.
I have lived in Spain since May 2003. This is also in the present perfect. It uses since to tell us the time period in which I have been living in Spain, and suggests that I still live in Spain.
You could also say, Richard has lived in Spain for 8 years. This uses for to tell us that I have been living in Spain for a period of 8 years and suggests that I still live in Spain. Notice the change to has for the third person singular.
This is different to the past simple, Richard lived in Spain for 8 years, which still tells us a period of time, but suggests that I no longer live in Spain.
Richard has made another Daily Dose of English does not tell us when it was made.
Richard has just made another Daily Dose of English tells us that I have made it recently.
In fact, I have made seven Daily Doses of English this month, including this one. This tells us that the time period that I am talking about, this month, has not finished yet.
Now take a look at this paragraph on the left and see if you can complete the verbs in the present perfect tense. After you have watched I will show you the right answers. You might want to write them on a piece of paper.
Press the pause button now and complete the answers.
Now here are the correct answers. Did you get them all right? Press pause to check.
I hope you have enjoyed this Daily Dose of English and I'll see you again soon for another one.
Goodbye for now.
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17 videos
look at the flags behind
MrPatriot68 1 month ago
correction; some verbs end in "ed" in the past simple form but are still irregular as they do not end in "ed" in the past participle; To show, to mow, to saw, to sew, to sow.
To flee ends in "ed" in both the past simple and past participle and is an irregular verb as an "e" is dropped.
A good explanation all the same.
memully 7 months ago
Matt Damon is an ass.
JackBlair2 8 months ago
Thank you sooo...mmuch! I do find your "prescription" very useful~!
tienmimidehome 9 months ago
Wonderful interactive English explanations. Thank you very much!!
ANANNYA27 9 months ago
i get my daily dose every days hahah i improved a lot
rudewey 9 months ago
Irregular verbs are difficult for me to memorize.
mitsubishi777 9 months ago
I think in some cases the present perfect was an option, am I right? For example, I think I could write "I see the number of views rising every day" meaning that I can constanltly observe the tendency or "I had so many requests" meaning just that there were many letters from students.
I wonder if it's right or wrong and I would appreciate your answer a lot!
vikapavl 9 months ago
Thank you!
callmenatali 9 months ago