A presentation for ESL students

1. Past simple and present
perfect

2. Past simple
• We use the past simple for a finished action in the past. We normally
use last, ago, or a date to say when it happened
• Last Monday I went to the gym
• I arrived six months ago
• I was born on October

3. Present Perfect
• We use the present perfect for experiences in general
• I have been to the Everest (we don’t say when)
• We use the Present perfect for an unfinished period of time (we
usually use “this”)
• She’s been to yoga clases twice this week
• We use it with “for” and “since” to express duration during an
unfinished period of time
• I have lived here for seven years/ I have lived here since 2010 (and I still live
here)

4. Present perfect with already, yet and just
• When I want to express that something has been finished, I use
“already”
• I have already finished tidying my room
• We use “yet” for questions and negatives
• Have you done the washing-up yet?
• No, I haven’t done it yet
Note that already goes between the auxiliar and the verb, whereas yet
is always at the end of the sentence.