Practice the PRESENT PERFECT TENSE in English!

NEXT, watch one of my other grammar lessons:

TRANSCRIPT

Emma: Hello. My name is Emma, and we have a very special video for you today. Okay? In today's video you're going to learn a little bit of grammar about the present perfect, and then you are going to play a really fun game. Not only are you going to get to play a fun game, you're also going to get to meet my sister. Yes, Emma has a sister, so you'll get to see my sister a little bit later because she is going to play the game with us as well. So, let's get started and let me teach you this grammar point, so then we can get to the fun stuff. Okay?

So, today we're going to talk about the present perfect. The present perfect is a bit of grammar. Okay? It's a type of tense that many students get very frustrated with. They don't know: "Do I use the present perfect? Do I use the past tense?" It can be really difficult. So, when do we use the present perfect, and what is the present perfect?

Well, let me first give you an example of a present perfect sentence, because maybe you've seen something like this before. "Have you ever been to France?", "Have you ever lived in a different city?", "Has your sister ever been on TV?" These are three examples of the present perfect.

So, when do we use the present perfect? Well, there's different times we use the present perfect in English. In today's lesson, we're going to focus on using the present perfect to talk about a past experience. So, this is something interesting. An experience is usually an interesting experience; although it doesn't have to be. So, it's an experience that has happened in the past. So, it's not happening now, it's not happening in the future; it's already happened. It happened before, in the past. That's why a lot of students have a hard time with the present perfect because they see the word "present", and they get confused. "But how can we be talking about the past?"

Well, the present perfect can be used to talk about a past experience, and we use it to talk about a past experience when we're just talking about something that happened, but we're not talking about when it happened. We're not talking about a specific time; we're not talking about a date. We're talking generally about an experience that happened in the past.

So, I wanted to focus on present perfect questions to ask people about their experiences, because a lot of conversations start this way or have this in them. So, when we ask a person a question about the past experience, we can ask them: "Have you ever...?" This indicates we want to know something about somebody's past. "Have you ever been to France?" for example. So I'm asking you: "In the past, have you been to France?"

So, to create the present perfect, let's talk about form now. We have: "Have you ever" and then we add something called a past participle to make it the present perfect. So, what's a past participle? Well, a "past participle" is a form of the verb. So, for example, in this case we have the verb "be", "to be". The past participle form of the verb "to be" is "been". Okay? In this case, we have: "Have you ever" and we have our past participle. What's a past participle again? It's a verb in a specific form. Okay? So it's a specific form of a verb. In this case, "lived" is the past participle of "live" or "to live". And our last example. Oh, we have "been" again, which I've already discussed.

So, we use past participles in the present perfect. Now, this is where it gets a little bit challenging. There are two different types of past participles; we have our regular past participles and our irregular past participles. So, what's a "regular past participle"? Well, this is a verb where we just add "ed". Okay? So, for example: "play" becomes "played", and I add "ed", and that makes it a past participle. Another example is just down here: "lived". "Live", we add "ed" and it becomes "lived", and that's an example of a regular past participle. Okay? So, have you ever...? […]

[nationalinstituteofprofess]

Emma, You are one of the most natural teachers I have ever seen in my life. Eventhough u r not the most eloquent person, u have the intellectual ability to analyze and emphasize on every rule in the grammar spontaneously. We are proud of you Emma..!

[H-zq]

Hello Emma, I am teaching ESL now and I found your illustrations so helpful and clear. Thank you so much!

[onatgecikligun]

SHE İS THE BEST TEACHER I HAVE EVER SEEN İN MY WHOLE LİFE!!

[americasoto]

I have reviewed different videos to check English Grammar and use them in my classes. I have to say that Emma is one of the best: clear, dynamic and knowledgeable! My very best from A CHILEAN and USA resident.

[JoyJoy-sqiy]

I had just won the game!! :))
Anyway, I love how Emma prepares her lessons. It's not boring and at the same time very inspirational and motivating as well. I love how she naturally elaborate the topics in her lessons that's why I can understand better and catch my attention and also I love how sport her sister is they are both pretty! She is one of my favorite and the reason I watch EngVid. Keep up the good work Emma!! You're so smart and simple! I am humbly from the Philippines thank you and..
GodBless😇😍

[dellagillianwinterton]

I tried this with my students today.... We had so much fun. Teaching second language English. I asked questions such as Have you ever been arrested? Or have you cheated in a test? Etc... We laughed so hard. They will never forget the rule or the lesson. Thank you for a fantastic lesson plan

[arielcabrera]

Your sister is very nice. I hope to see her again on your videos, Emma. Thank you so much!

[AiTranDucKiem]

I haven't ever learned any good lessons about present perfect tense until I watched your video. Thanks for all of things that you do. Keep going Emma

[shahidbangash]

Emma, you and all your lesson is awesome .You are showing a simple but very effective way of learning english .

[lewiskalinde]

This topic, I think, is the only best way to help students to facilitate their spoken English . In French is called: " conjugation " which I seldom seen English teachers using it . So great lesson Emma ! I appreciate it !!!

[fernandaviana]

I loved this class, thank you, you're the best teacher! Kisses from Brazil

[sadegh]

Not only are you Good looking and have a good personality but your sister is the same, we've learned a lot from you, appreciate it😊

[cirmaks]

The best lessons with Emma, My favorite Teacher

[calistusfrancis]

I won the game
You're an amazing teacher I wish you could be my mentor

[analacoach]

I love you Emma, thank you for introducing us your sisters. One of my dreams is to meet you when I travel to Canada, you are a power woman!

[zairyzairy]

She is simply the best teacher I have ever had.

[ramakrishnamunjeri]

Hi Emma, Please make more videos with your sister. This video is very interesting and helpful to understand the present perfect tense. I hope you will make videos with your sister soon.

[Регистровыйанализнавязчивыхмыс]

A good lesson, really. When i was studying English in my past, some people said to me, that i had to keep track such word as "ever" (ever - as indicator of Present Perfect). Because when you see it, you must use Present Perfect Tense one hundred percent ).

[Ivanlsardi]

You are the best Emma! Thanks and nice to meet your Sister she doing well hope to see her soon!!

[ismetgracanin]

I learn a lot frim this young teacher. Thank you so much!