PAST SIMPLE vs. PRESENT PERFECT - What's the Difference? - #1 Most Common Error - English Grammar

In this lesson, you will learn how to use the PAST SIMPLE and PRESENT PERFECT tenses correctly. Also see - MOST COMMON MISTAKES IN ENGLISH & HOW TO AVOID THEM: • 50 MOST COMMON MISTAKE...
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Transcript:
Hi and welcome back. In this
lesson, I will show you how
to avoid the most common
mistake that people make with
the past simple and present
perfect tenses, and how to
use the two tenses correctly.
We will do an exercise to
really understand the
concept, and there is a quiz
to test your understanding.
So let’s start.
Have a look at these five
sentences. Some of the
sentences are wrong. Stop the
video, try to make the
corrections, then play the
video again and check.
Alright, actually, I tricked
you a little bit with that.
All of these sentences are
wrong. That’s because, they
all talk about a single,
finished action in the past.
You can see this on the
timeline. The action can be
at any time in the past - it
can be 1998 or it can be last
week or even yesterday. But
if you mention the time for a
finished action, then you
MUST use the past simple -
not the present perfect.
Notice that in all of these
sentences, there is a strong
focus on the time when the
action happened.
So when do you use the
present perfect? You can use
it if the action happened
recently, and you want to
focus on the action and not
the time. In our five
sentences, the first three
are not recent, they happened
further back in the past.
But if I bought a house just
two weeks ago, or last week,
I can say “I have bought a
house.” That means I have
bought the house recently. So
if I say to you, “Hey guess
what! I have bought a house!”
then I am giving you good
news. I’m focusing on buying
the house. I’m not talking
about the time because it’s
not important.
If you want to know the time,
you can ask “When did you buy
it?” Then I can say “I bought
it two weeks ago” or “I
bought it last week.” Notice,
again, to mention the time,
we use the past simple.
Alright, I’m now going to
give you a test to see if you
can use these two tenses
correctly. Just remember: if
the past time is important,
then use the past simple. If
the time is not important,
use the present perfect.
You see three dialogues on
the screen. In each sentence,
I want you to choose the
correct form of the verb.
Stop the video, think about
your answers, then play the
video again and check.
Alright, let’s discuss the
answers. Number one is “Hey
Sabina, your package has
arrived. Here, Ruth is giving
news, so there’s no need to
mention the time. For this
reason, we use the present
perfect tense. In number two,
“When did it arrive?” We want
to use the past simple here
because this question asks
about the specific time that
the action happened. Number
three is “It arrived this
morning.” because here Ruth
says exactly when it happened
- this morning, so the past
simple is correct.
Number four - “Hi Paul. Great
news. I have passed my
exams.” In number five,
“Congrats! When did the
results come out?” Number six
is “They came out last
night”.
Number seven is “Have you
ever been to Argentina?”
Here, we don’t mention a time
because the question asks
about life experience. The
time is not important. So
it’s like asking: “In your
life, have you ever visited
Argentina?” ‘Been’ means
‘visited’ here. Number eight
is “No, I haven’t. Have you?”
And number nine - “Yes, I
went there on vacation in
2010.” Here, we want the past
simple because the time is
mentioned - 2010.
How many answers did you get
right? Let me know in the
comments section below. I’d
like to thank five of our
viewers for sending in the
request for this lesson:
Michael Cygnus, Sourav Sagar,
Alberto Linhares, Yogesh
Dwivedi, and Manish
Chauthani.
Alright, click the subscribe
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see you in another lesson
soon.