Grammar: the present perfect

tense

By: Yeneneh W.

January, 2020
Haramaya University
 Diagnostic Exercise
Directions: Fill in each blank with present perfect or past simple tense form
of the given verb in parentheses.

Changes in My Life

My life __________ (change) a lot since I started college. When I was

in high school, I ________ (not have) many responsibilities. Since I
_________ (start) college, I’ve had to work and study at the same
time. When I _______ (be) in high school, I used to hang out with my
friends. Now that I’m in college, I ____________ (not have) much time
for my friends . . .
 1. Form
 We form the present perfect with have or has + the past participle.
Study the table below.
Subjec Voice
t Active voice Passive voice

I have + past participle (V3) have been + past participle

We (V3)
You These are my doormats. They
They have just taken a midterm We have been advised to work
examination. much harder than ever.
He has + past participle (V3) has been + past participle (V3)
She
It Lina has won this year’s beauty I don’t think that Dawit has been
contest. In fact, she is not only informed about today’s meeting.
slim and beautiful but intelligent.
 Negatives are formed with has not (hasn’t) or have not (haven’t):
Example: We have not participated in the conference.
 You can also make questions with have and has:
Examples: Haven’t you written the report yet?
Has anything new been mentioned in the meeting?

Exercise
Directions: Make interrogatives , and affirmative and negative
statements by
using the present perfect tense form of the verbs in the
box below. write develop investigate have

fall talk message chat

2. Beware of the following subject-verb concords:
 Use has with somebody, something, someone, each (of),
either (of), every + noun, everything, everybody, everyone,
no one, nothing, nobody, little, a little, neither (of) , one (of),
much (of) or the number of +noun.
 Have is always used with both (of), several, few (of), a few,
fewer or a number of + noun.
 You can use either ‘has’ or ‘have’ depending on the type of
noun (singular or plural) these determiners refer to or are
followed by: some (of), all (of), half of, one-third of, or most
(of).
 After there, we use has or have, depending on the noun that
follows. Use has with a singular noun. Use have with a plural
noun.
Examples:
1. One-third of the students have submitted their
assignments so far.
2. One-third of our planet has been covered with water.
3. Little has been written about our indigenous
knowledge.
4. Several students have been awarded scholarships
abroad this year.
5. Workicho hasn’t had any meal yet.
6. There have been more investments this fiscal year.
7. There has been a surveillance camera on the ceiling.
 Exercise

Directions: Complete the following sentences with the correct present

perfect
form of the verbs in parentheses.
 3. Uses of the present perfect tense
A. We use the present perfect tense to show that an action or state
started in the past and continues to the present.

More Examples:
1. My sister has been a programmer for three years.
2. I have had an e-mail account since I bought my computer.
3. The man wearing a blue sweater has worked for this company since
1990.
4. How long has your cousin stayed in Gonder?
B. We use the present perfect to talk about the repetition of an action in a
time period that started in the past and includes the present. That is, the
present perfect tense is used with unfinished time expressions such as
today, this morning, this month and this year. The use of ‘so far’ and
‘up to now’ with the present perfect tense shows that we are counting up
to the present. To indicate zero times, we use a negative verb + at all.
There is a probability that this action may still happen.

Examples:
1. How much money have you spent on books this year?
2. Dashen Bank has imported 200 ATM machines from China so far.
3. Up to now, one Web site has made about 250,000 books available.
4. I haven’t bought any books from a bookstore at all this year.
C. We use the present perfect to refer to an action that occurred at
an
indefinite time in the past that still has importance to the
present
situation. Words that show indefinite time are: ever, yet, and
already.

1. Have you ever “Googled” your own name?

2. Technology has made our life easier.
3. Have Lalago and Petros become billionaires yet?
4. The assignment has already been submitted.
D. The present perfect simple is used for past activities that have a present
result.
Examples:
Edom is bleeding; I think she has cut her finger.
The room is dirty. It has not been cleaned.

E. We use the present perfect tense to talk or ask about what is new around us.
Therefore, use the present perfect when you report about something new.
Example:
The midterm examination schedule has been posted on the main
noticeboard.

F. We use the present perfect tense in stead of the perfect future in time
clauses.
Example:
Children are given names after they have been born. (not will have been
born)
 4. Adverbs used with present perfect tense
A. Ever, Never, Recently, Once, Twice, thrice… etc.
 We can use these adverbs with the present perfect tense to talk about
the repetition of an action or experience in our life. It is the first/
second/third time… can be used in this sense.

Examples:
1. I have been to Langano twice.
2. It has rained recently
3. We have never visited Nech Sar National Park in Ariba Minch.
4. It is the second time that I have lost my schoolbag.
5. It is the third time that my laptop has been fixed.
6. Have you ever worked for this company.
 We often use the present perfect tense with ever in questions and
never in negative sentence with an affirmative verb. Ever can be
used with superlatives in affirmative statements (This is the most
brilliant professor I have ever met). Use never to show that
something has not occurred from the past to the present.

Example:
Dawit: Have you ever had an Italian dish?
Megersa: No, I have never eaten.

 Note the difference between gone and been.

Elmo has been to Brazil. (He is back now, or He is somewhere

outside Brazil)
Elmo has gone to Brazil. (He is still in Brazil)
 B. Already, Just, Still, Yet
 We use already to say that something has happened before now.
 We use just in affirmative sentences to say that something has
happened very recently.
 We use yet in questions to ask about something that we expect to
happen. We use yet in negative sentences to say that something that
we expect to happen has not happened.
 We use still in negative sentences with the same meaning as yet.

Examples:
1. This application has not been used yet.
2. I have already organized the annual report of our university.
3. The director has just gone out.
4. The bus has not still arrived.
 C. How long…?, for, since
 We use the present perfect with ‘how long…?’, ‘for’ and ‘since’ to talk about
situations that in the past and continue in the present.
 Use how long…? to ask about the amount of time from the past to the present.
 We use ‘for’ to show the duration of the situation (period of time) and ‘since’ to
show when the situation began in the past (point of time). When the past simple
is used with ‘since’, it serves as a point of time, so use present perfect in the
main clause. We can also use dates, hours, days, months and years after since
to show point of time.

Examples:
1. How long have you stayed here?
2. I have known Bezawit since I was in grade one.
3. I have learnt English for 12 years, but I am not still fluent enough.
4. It hasn’t rained for three months. We are worried.
5. We have been here since 2pm.
 Exercise
Directions: Complete each of the following sentences with already, never, yet, since, how
long, ever, still, or for.

1. Dagim always watches horror films, but I have ____ been interested in them.
2. I do not exactly remember _____ Ali has taught Mathematics at this school.
3. We can now enjoy ourselves; we have finished our examinations _______.
4. My daughter hasn’t _____done her Physics homework.
5. Samuel: Have you _____ visited the Blue Nile Falls in Ethiopia?
Heran: No, I haven’t visited it _______.
6. Asiya: ________ have you been here?
Abdi: _________ 3 pm.
7. We have studied Software Engineering _________ three years.
8. Biftu: Haven’t you submitted your assignment ______?
Banjaw: No, I haven’t.
 5. Present perfect vs past simple
 Have a look at the sentences in the table below:

1. We use the present perfect to talk about an action in the past, but we
do not specify the time.
2. We use the past simple to talk about an action in the past, and we
specify the time (two hours ago, yesterday, last week…).
3. We use the present perfect tense with how long…?, since and for
when the situation, action or period of time is not finished. We can use
the past simple past tense with how long…?, since, for and from… to
when the time is finished and the action completed.

Examples:
1. Zemen: How long have you lived in Hawasa?
Jemila: I have lived in Hawasa for six years, or I have lived in Hawasa
since 2006.
Note: According to her response, Jemila still lives in Hawasa.

2. Larebo: How long did you live in Hawasa?

Dokle: I lived there for ten years, or I lived there from 1995 to 2005.
Note: Unlike Jemila’s response, Dokle’s response indicates that he no
longer lives in Hawasa. That is, Dokle lives somewhere outside Hawasa.
 Miscellaneous Exercise
Directions: Use the present perfect or past simple tense form of the verb
given in
parentheses after each blank in the following passage.

Google
Since its start in 1998, Google ___ (become) one of the most popular search
engines. It has grown from a research project in the dormitory room of two college
students to a business that now employs approximately 20,000 people.
Google’s founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, ____(meet) in 1995 when they were
in their twenties and graduate students in computer science at Stanford University
in California. They realized that Internet search was a very important field and
began working together to make searching easier. Both Page and Brin left their
studies at Stanford to work on their project. Interestingly, they have never returned
to finish their degrees.
Brin _____(bear) in Russia, but he has lived in the U.S. since he __ (be) five years
old. His father was a mathematician in Russia. Page, whose parents were computer
experts, _____ (interest) in computers since he was six years old.
When Google_____ (start) in 1998, it did 10,000 searches a day. Today, it
does 235 million searches a day in 40 languages. It indexes 21 trillion
Web pages.
How is Google different from other search engines? ____ you ever
____(notice) how many ads and banners there are on other search
engines? News, sports scores, stock prices, links for shopping, mortgage
rates, and more fill other search engines. Brin and Page wanted a clean
home page. They believed that people come to the Internet to search for
specific information, not to be hit with a lot of unwanted data. The success
of Google over its rivals ___ (prove) that this is true.
Over the years, Google ___ (add) new features to its Web site: Google
Images, where you can type in a word and get thousands of pictures;
Google News, which takes you to today’s news; Google Maps; and more.
But one thing hasn’t changed: the clean opening page that Google offers
its users.
In 2009, Forbes.com ______(list) Page and Brin as having net worths of $12
billion each, at 36 and 35 years old.