Present Perfect Vs. Simple Past

Present perfect has three functions
1. 3. To talk about unfinished states, things that started in the past and continue in the present. We usually use "for" and "since" to mention the duration.
  1. I have known you for more than a year.
    1. She has been married since 1960
2. 2. To talk abou recent past events, things that finished recently. You can use "just" in these sentences.
  1. You have just studied the first function of Present Perfect
3. 1. To talk about past events which we know happened during the past but we don't know when exactly.
  1. I have traveled to U.S.A.
Simple past
1. Simple past is used to talk about actions and states that started and finished in the past, and we often know when this happened.
  1. I was born in Venezuela.
    1. I graduated from college in 2011
Structure of Present Perfect: Have or Has + verb in past participle
1. Have--> I, You, We, They Has--> She, He, It
2. For negative sentences use haven't or hasn't
3. Contractions are very common, they are: I've, you've, we've, they've, she's, he's, it's
Struture of Simple Past: Verb in past, which can be regular or irregular
1. For negative sentences use didn't + verb in infinitive

Resource summary

	Created by Liliana Quesada about 4 years ago