Life

Pre-intermediate Unit 7a(1)

Have you ever visited Yes, I have. Wow! I haven’t seen that
Paris? I went last year, before. It’s beautiful. When
with Maddy. did you get it? Thanks! I got it last week.

Presentation

Use the present perfect to talk about your experiences – You also use the present perfect with not / never … before:
the things you’ve done, and haven’t done, in your life. I haven’t been here before. I’ve never skied before.
Form the present perfect with have / has 1 past participle. You use the present perfect and not the present simple
with the first / second / third time.
Past participle
Say This is the first time I’ve ridden a bike. (don’t say
With regular verbs, add -ed: ski → skied This is the first time I ride a bike.)
Some verbs are irregular: see → seen, fly → flown
Present perfect and past simple
Affirmative and negative Use the present perfect to talk about experiences in
general. You do not say when it happened.
’ve (have)
I / You / We / They
haven’t (have not)
Have you been to Paris? (5 at any time in your life)
visited Paris.
’s (has) ?  ?   ?   ? now
He / She / It
hasn’t (has not) time
You were
Questions born

How many have I / you / we / they You often use the past simple after present perfect
visited? questions to give information about specific events and
countries has he / she / it
times in the past.
Have I / you / we / they
visited Paris? Yes, I have. I went last year, with my friend Maddy.
Has he / she / it
I went
Short answers to Paris now
time
Yes, I / you / we / No, I / you / we /
have. haven’t. last year
they they
Yes, he / she / it has. No, he / she / it hasn’t. been
When you are talking about experiences, you often use
ever / never
been as the past participle for go.
You often use the present perfect with ever and never:
Say I’ve been to Paris three times. (don’t say I’ve gone to
Have you ever driven a jeep? (ever 5 in your life) Paris three times.)
I’ve never been to India. (never 5 not in my whole life)
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 Pre-intermediate Unit 7a(1)
Exercises

Exercises
1 Complete the sentences with the present perfect form of the verb in brackets.
1  his is the first time I
T (eat) here. The food is really good.
2 D  ave never (win) a prize before. He’s so pleased!
3 Jamie (meet) Klara? I think he’d like her.
4 I (not do) anything like this before. It’s great fun!
5 you ever (go) to a football match?
6 M  y parents (not be) here before. It’s their first time.
7 you (study) this before? You’re very good at it.
8 Abby (see) the new photo exhibition? She’d love it.
2 Write questions using you and the present perfect.
1 travel / abroad?  Have you ever travelled abroad?
2 be / a live concert? 
3 take part / sports competition? 
4 be / on TV ? 
3 Answer the questions in Exercise 2. If the answer is yes, give more details. Use the present
perfect or simple past as appropriate.
1 Yes, I have. I’ve been to France, Morocco and Thailand. I went to Thailand last year for a month.
It was great!
4  Choose the correct form of the verb. Then listen and check.
Conversation 1
A: 1
Have you tried / Did you try the new Korean restaurant in town?
B: Yes, I 2have / did. We 3’ve been / went there a couple of times. We 4’ve been / went last weekend.
A: What 5have you thought / did you think of it?
B: It was good, really good.
Conversation 2
C: I hate my job!
D: 6Have you ever thought / Did you ever think about changing it?
C: Yes, I 7have / did, lots of times! In fact I 8’ve spoken / spoke to my boss about it yesterday.
D: Really? What 9has he said / did he say?
5 Underline the mistake in each sentence and write the correct version.
1  ave you eaten well when you were in London?  Did you eat
H
2 This is only the second time I sleep in a tent.
3 I never went here before. It’s really beautiful.
4 Have you ever gone to Australia? I’d love to go.
5 He visited so many interesting places in these last three months.
6 Have you enjoyed the film last night? Yes, we did. It was great.
7 Is this the first time your kids visited Disneyland?
8 I’ve seen Paul at the swimming pool yesterday.

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