Unit 43: Present Perfect Tense II

English as a Foreign Language

In this lesson of  Learning English as a Foreign Language, we shall
learn:

• How to use Present Perfect Tense for expressing Repeated Actions.
• How to use Present Perfect Tense for expressing a situation that began
  in the past and continuous to the present.

Video Tutorial in English

Video Tutorial in Urdu

You have already learnt Present Perfect Tense in Unit 42 and in that unit I
explained how to use Present Perfect Tense. We also understood the difference
between Present Perfect and Past Simple. I told you that there are many uses of
Present Perfect Tense, in Unit 42 , we only learnt two uses of Present Perfect
Tense, to show experiences or achievements and to show actions completed in the
past without any specific time.

In today's lesson, we shall learn the other two important uses of Present
Perfect Tense.

Present Perfect for Repeated Actions

You can use Present Perfect Tense for the repetition of an activity before
now. It means that if you repeated an activity or an action, you need to use
Present Perfect Tense for that. Now you may be thinking that we use 
Present Simple Tense for repeated actions. Let me clear that there are two kinds
of repeated actions:

1. Those repeated actions which are a permanent part of your life style.
   (e.g. I go to school everyday,  I play cricket every week).
2. Those repeated actions which are not permanent part of your life style.
   

          For example:

1. He has had five tests so far this month.
2. I have cooked dinner 3 times this week.
3. She has called me many times this week.

You can easily understand the difference between Permanent Repeated Actions
and Temporary Repeated Actions. We do not use Present Perfect Tense for
expressing Permanent Repeated Actions instead we use it for Temporary Repeated
Actions. You can observe that  I go to school or I play cricket are
Permanent Repeated Actions that is why I used Present Simple Tense for them but 
when you observe the examples of Temporary Repeated Actions, you see that they
are not part of your lifestyle. If I say  he has had five tests so far this
month does not mean that he has five tests every month, instead it shows a
repeated action only for this month. Likewise when you say I have cooked dinner
3 times this week , it shows that cooking dinner is not part of your lifestyle
but you did it just this week. You must remember that the exact time of each
repetition is not important.

Present Perfect for Situations

If a situation started in the past and still persists, to show such
situations we use Present Perfect Tense.

For example:

1. I have known Aslam for 3 years.
2. She has liked ice-cream since childhood.
3. I have been here since 3 pm.
4. I have enjoyed my life a lot since my marriage.

All of the above examples show a situation  that began in the past and
still continues to the present. You can see that we are using Since / For with 
these situations.

• Since is used for a particular time like 1998 , 3 pm.
• For is used for a duration of time like 2 days, 3 weeks , 10 months.

DO NOT use Present Perfect Tense for the
ACTIONS started in the past and still continue.It is only for SITUATIONS that began in the past and
still persist. For actions that began in the past and still continue we use
Present Perfect Continuous Tense.

The verbs used in the examples above do not show any action, they show
situations.

Exercise No.1: Fill in the blanks with Since or For.

She has been here........

1.   three months.
2.   October.
3.   1989.
4.   five years.
5.   fourteen minutes.
6.   10: 40.
7.   about three weeks.
8.   the first of February.
9.   almost 10 months.
10.   the beginning of the
    course.
11.   a couple of hours.
12.   last Sunday.
13.   a long time.
14.   two years.
15.   3:30.

 

Check Answers

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