Lee's English Blog

In this post I will show you how the present perfect and past simple are used for different parts of the past.

Remember, the present perfect is used to talk about the past up to now and uses the auxiliary verb, 'have'.

Time is often divided into named blocks (years - seasons - months - weeks - days -morning - afternoon - hours - minutes - seconds). If we are talking about something that happened in a block of time and we are currently in that block of time, we can use the present perfect. If that block of time has past, we use past simple.

Look at the pictures below and see how the conversations are different.

 

Conversation 1:

 

What time is it?

Is it still the morning?

What part of the day is Jeff asking Carol about?

When did Carol do and finish the work?

 

Conversation 2:

 

What time is it?

Is it still morning?

What part of the day is Jeff asking Carol about?

When did Carol do and finish the work?

 

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In the first conversation, Jeff and Carol use the present perfect (HAVE + PAST PARTICIPLE) because Jeff is asking about the morning (today) and it's the morning now.

 

In conversation 2, they use the past simple because Jeff is asking about the morning (today), but now it's the afternoon. The morning has finished.

 

Look at the sentences below. Why is the present perfect being used in sentence 1, and the past simple in sentence 2?

 

I phoned you today, but there was no answer.

1. I've been to the gym this afternoon.

2. I went to the gym this afternoon.

 

 

In sentence one, it is still the afternoon, but in sentence two it is sometime in the evening or night.

 

We can use the same structure to talk about days, weeks, months, years, seasons etc.

 

I've been on holiday to Brazil this summer. (It's summer now)

I went on holiday to Brazil in summer. (It's maybe autumn or winter now)

 

I've been out all day. (It is still the same day)

I was out all day. (Maybe it's very late now or the day after)

 

Here's another picture conversation:

 

Conversation 1:

 

Conversation 2:

 

In conversation 1, it's Monday, which is the start of a new week, the man's colleague was sick from Monday to Friday the week before. The man asked his colleague a question about a clear time in the past (last week) that finnished before now.

In conversation 2, the man's colleague was sick on Monday and Tuesday but returned to work on Wednesday. The colleague was sick all the way up to Wednesday and when the man asked him, he used the present perfect, which means from a time in the past up to now (Wednesday).

If the man wanted to ask about yesterday, he would ask, "Were you sick yesterday". "'yesterday" is a specific time in the past that has ended.

 

If you want to learn more, ask me about learning English Online using Skype or other voice chat software.