English A2 · Present perfect
Anglais A2 Sujet 4 4:39 Narration en anglais · Sous-titres anglais + 中文 incrustés
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Transcript
The present perfect is the tense of the open door: a past event with a connection to now. The form is have or has plus the past participle: I have eaten; she has gone. Compare the doors. Closed: I ate breakfast at seven; finished, time named, done. Open: I have eaten breakfast; so I am not hungry now. The memory hook: the past simple tells a story; the present perfect leaves a footprint. The story is over; the footprint is still here.
The forms: I, you, we and they take have plus the participle; he, she and it take has, the ego letter's cousin, because even in the perfect, he gets special treatment. Regular verbs repeat the past form: worked, worked, no drama. The rebels grow a third column: go, went, gone; eat, ate, eaten; see, saw, seen; be, was, been. Ten a week still empties the list, and now the list has a third column to love.
Pause and choose. She has gone to Beijing twice. The perfect needs has plus the third column, and the third column of go is gone. Went is the past simple, which cannot stand next to has, and go and going are different doors entirely.
Five little words live inside the perfect. Ever asks about life experience: have you ever eaten hotpot? Never answers it: I have never seen snow. Just means a minute ago: she has just left. Already means sooner than expected: we have already eaten. And yet sits at the end of negatives and questions like a cat waiting at the door: I haven't finished yet. Remember that never is already negative; one wall per sentence, as always.
The great collision. Open door: I have seen that film, sometime in life; she has lived here for ten years, still here. Closed door: I saw it last week, a named time; she lived here for ten years, and moved away. The killer rule: a finished time expression kills the perfect. I have seen it yesterday is illegal; yesterday closes the door, so I saw it yesterday. And the two measuring words: since is a start line, since twenty fifteen; for is a tape measure, for ten years.
Pause and choose. I saw that film yesterday. Yesterday closes the door, so the past simple. Option one broke the killer rule, option three mixed have with the wrong column, and option four dropped have entirely, which leaves the participle standing in the rain.
One word changes where a person is standing. She has gone to Beijing: she is there now, not here; the trip is still happening. She has been to Beijing: she went and came back; the trip is an experience she owns. And a small structural trap: the participle always needs its have. I eaten breakfast drops the helper, and the perfect is always two words.
Pause and choose. She has gone to the shops; she will be back for lunch. She is out now, so gone. Been would mean the trip is already a completed experience, and lunch would be waiting for someone who is already home, which is a mystery for a different lesson.
The show-off game, true experiences only. I have eaten hotpot. I have never seen snow. I have already finished my homework, and one of these may be a lie. Then ask a partner: have you ever been to Shanghai? Yes, I have; no, I haven't; but I have seen photos. And when your phone buzzes: she has just texted me; the message says, have you finished yet?
Pause for four checks. I have eaten breakfast, so I'm not hungry: the footprint is still here. I saw that film last week: a named time kills the perfect. She has gone to Beijing: she is there now; been means she came back. And have you finished yet: the cat at the end of the sentence. Next topic: the future, and its three honest ways to talk about it.