I have lived

Present perfect

Present perfect

In the following sentence has collected is an example of the present perfect.

  • Louise started collecting teaspoons when she was eight. She has collected 196.

The present perfect is formed like this: auxiliary verb have + past participle.

  • I have lived here for six years.
  • She has written two pages.

Affirmative and negative

I/You/We/They have (not) seen the film.
He/She/It has (not) seen the film.

Question

Have I/you/we/they seen the film?
Has he/she/it seen the film?

The present perfect is used to talk about:

-situations which started in the past and continue now.

  • I have lived in Japan for 13 years.
  • She has worked as a teacher for two months.

-experiences at an indefinite time in the past.

  • I've been to Rome, but I've never been to Venice.
  • Have you seen the new Woody Allen film?

1. Past participles.

Check that you know the irregular past participles. Complete the table.

2. Unfinished situations.

Complete these eight sentences using this model:

Louise started collecting teaspoons when she was eight.
She has now collected 196.

3. How many questions.

Match the two halves of each question. This exercise is in two parts. Scroll down to see Part 2.

Part 1

Part 2

4. How many questions.

Write the questions for these answers.

5. Dialogue completion.

Complete these short conversations.

For example:

A: Louise started collecting teaspoons when she was eight.
B: How many has she collected?
A: 196.

6. Finished actions.

Look at these two sets of examples.

Natasha started writing postcards this morning.
She is still writing.
She has written 15.
Megan started writing postcards this morning too.
She stopped writing at one o'clock.
She wrote eight.

Which is Natasha and which is Megan?

7. Present perfect or past simple?

Why do we use the present perfect for one...

Natasha has written 15.

...but the past simple for the other?

Megan wrote eight.

8. Finished or unfinished?

Choose the correct sentence for each situation.

For more information about present perfect vs. past simple see the Grammar Reference.