Скачать или смотреть Past Simple and Present Perfect - English grammar tutorial video lesson

Past simple and present perfect - how to form them and how to use them correctly. This lesson is about the difference between the past simple and the present perfect. I am going to show you when to use a past simple and when to use a present perfect and more important how to keep them apart.

Take a look at these sentences:
I broke my leg on holiday last year.
I have broken my leg.
The first sentence is in the past simple tense, the second sentence is in the
present perfect tense. First we are going to take a look at how to form a past simple
and how to form a present perfect. For the regular verbs we take the infinitive form of
the verb and add '-ed' for the past simple. For example

I kicked the ball.

For the irregular verbs: we use the unique past simple form .For instance She bought a bike. For the present perfect we use the auxiliary verb 'to have' and the past participle.


For the regular verbs we make a past participle by adding '-ed' to the verb.
For example
I have kicked the ball.

For the irregular verbs the present perfect also uses the past participle but this
past participle has a unique past perfect form.
She has bought a bike.

Now let's have a look at when we use a past simple. We use a past simple when something happened at a specific time in the past.
I broke my leg last week.
So it's important that I tell you that it was last week.

For the present perfect time is not important.
I have broken my leg.
It's not important when it happened.
We also use a present perfect for things that started in the past but have continued in the present.

For example:
I have lived here since 2012.
In the past simple that would be:
I lived there in 2012. Meaning I no longer live there.