This document provides information about the use of the present perfect tense ("have/has + past participle") in English. It discusses how the present perfect is used to talk about past experiences or actions that are still relevant to the present. It provides examples of using the present perfect with adverbs like "yet", "already", and expressions like "for" and "since" to indicate duration or a point in time. The document also contrasts the present perfect with the simple past tense and advises avoiding direct translations from Spanish.

1. Differences

2.  Auxiliary
have+ past participle:
Ex: I have done my homework.
 QUESTIONS: Inversion:
Ex.: Have you done your homework yet?
 NEGATIVE: Have+not (haven’t/hasn’t):
Ex.: No, I haven’t done my homework yet.

3.  Generally speaking, to talk about something that
started in the past and continues in the present or
has consequences in the present.
 For past experiences (often with ever/ never, which
always go before the main verb):
Ex.: Have you ever cheated in an exam?
Ex.: I haven’t been to London.
 With yet (at the end of the sentence) and already
(before the main verb) for emphasis:
Ex.: I’ve already done my homework.
Ex.: Have you done your homework yet?
Ex.: I haven’t done my homework yet.

4.  Unfinished states (non-action verbs) which
start in the past and are still true in the
present:
Ex.: We’ve been married for 50 years.
 Recent past actions, often with just (which
goes before the main verb)
Ex.: I’ve cut my finger. It’s bleeding.
(normally with consequences in the present)
Ex.: I’ve just finished my homework.

5.  How long: To ask about an unfinished period
of time (from the past until now):
Ex.: How long have you known each other?
 For:for a period of time:
Ex.: We’ve known each other for 15 years.
 Since:
for the starting point in the past:
Ex.: We’ve known each other since 2005/
since we were at school.

6.  Avoid Spanglish:
 SPANISH: Llevamos dos años casados/Nos
conocemos desde hace dos años.
 ENGLISH: We’ve been married for two
years/We’ve known each other for two years.
 Since cannot be used with ago. Ago is always
used with a past tense:
 Ex.: We got married five years ago, in 2007.

7.  The simple past is used for finished actions in the past, with no
connection to the present. We normally use a past time expression:
Ex: We went to London last summer/in 2011.
 BUT with no past expression:
Ex.: We’ve been to London twice (up to now, we could go back there
in the future).
 Simple past: always finished actions:
Ex.: We were married for 10 years (we aren’t married now BUT:
We’ve been married for 10 years (We are still married now).
 Simple past: I say when:
 Ex.: I cut my finger at work yesterday. BUT
 I’ve cut my finger (I don’t say when, we understand it’s recent).