Both tenses talk about the past, but they do different jobs. We use the present perfect for past actions that are connected to now — a result, an experience, or news that still matters. We use the past simple for finished actions at a definite time in the past.
Continue reading Structure: ‘Present perfect vs past simple’
In ‘Present perfect 1’ (click here), we talked about a specific situation where you can use the present perfect, to ask ‘have you ever …?’ questions. This time we want to talk about positive statements and also to compare the present perfect with the past simple.
To compare these two tenses it’s necessary to think about two time references: finished time and unfinished time.
When we think about the time reference ‘yesterday’, it’s clear that ‘yesterday’ is finished. Similarly, ‘last week’, ‘last month’ and ‘last year’ are also finished.
Tip: With ‘finished time’ references use the past simple.
In contrast to that, with ‘unfinished time’ references such as ‘this week’, ‘this year’, ‘this month’ etc… it’s clear that they aren’t finished.
Tip: With ‘unfinished time’ references use use the present perfect.
In some situations the time of day will determine if you should use the past simple or present perfect. In the morning for example the time reference ‘this morning’ is unfinished so you use the present perfect with it.
In the afternoon the time reference ‘this morning’ is finished so you should use the past simple in that situation. Check out the diagram below for more information, write some examples of your own and read them out loud to help you remember them.
Tip: Understanding the difference between ‘finished time references’ and ‘unfinished time references’ will help you a lot to use the present perfect correctly.
Very often we begin with a present perfect sentence and then use the past simple, then maybe the present simple and then something else. We don’t use the present perfect in isolation, we use it with other common tenses.
Let’s imagine you are talking to a friend on Wednesday.
Oh man…I’ve flown a lot this week (unfinished time). I flew ten hours on Monday (finished time) and twelve hours on Tuesday (finished time) and now I’m really tired.
As we can see in the example above, we use a mix of tenses together to talk about different time references.
Tip: In these situations you need to know your time reference before you select your verb and tense even though the time reference is usually at the end of the sentence.
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You are probably familiar with the present continuous (eg I am working). The past continuous is a similar form to that.
Form: Subject + ‘be’ (in the past form) + verb-ing
Use 1: We use the past continuous to say that something was in progress at a specific time in the past.
Example 1: I was working last weekend. (last weekend is the ‘specific time’ in the past)
Use 2: To indicate the an action (past continuous) was in progress when another action (past simple) happened.
Example 2: We were approaching (in progress) to land when a bird hit the windshield.
Check the diagram below for more information about when we often use this tense and try to make some example sentences of your own.
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This time in our structure help we continue with conjugations. This time we look at conjugating the past simple. If you are familiar with the present simple, the conjugation for the past simple is very easy. It follows the same structure but with the past simple form instead of the present simple form. Have a look at the diagram below to see more and practice some sentences of your own.
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It’s a very common tense and it’s not so difficult to understand. Past simple forms can be regular (with ‘ed’ at the end) or irregular. Be careful with the forms of irregular verbs in the past simple and check for their forms.
We use the past simple most often with finished actions in the past. They are ‘finished’ in the sense that they are completed and don’t have a connection to the present.
eg I arrived at the airport at 1:45pm.
eg We landed ten minutes late yesterday afternoon.
We can use the past simple to talk about our experiences, things we did, saw or read about etc…
Have a look at the diagram below to learn about uses of the past simple.
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