Leçon d’anglais – Le présent parfait

The Present Perfect

The present perfect is used in 4 situations :

1. Terminated action (like in French)
   • result
   • without specific circumstances
   • temporary result (so far, until now, yet, …)
2.   Ongoing Action that started in the past with time indicators “since” and “for” (present tense in French!)

Examples:

• Result: “He has painted the wall.” “She has bought a computer.”
• No specific circumstances: “I have seen this film.” “I have (already) been to China.” (no specific time given) BUT: “I was in China last year.”
• Temporary result: “He has called twice this week / so far.”
• Ongoing action: “She has been sick for three days.”

Comparing all four situations we can see, that in each case it is about an action that started somewhere in the past without specifying the exact time when it was started and is thus still linked to the present. In short:

Any action not specified in the past and open or linked to the present time uses the present perfect. 

Examples explained:

• “He has painted the wall.” focuses on the result and not when it was started. But “He painted the wall yesterday.”
• “I have seen this film.” It does not specify when I saw it, and focuses on up until now (present) I have seen it.
• “He has called twice this week.” Is also not specifying the time exact, when exactly he called, but it the number of calls (result) is still open in and linked with the present.
• “She has been sick for three days.”