General English
Be Successful
The Present Perfect Tense (Imperfect Past) —Preceding Action
(A) This tense is a mixture of present and past. At the time of speaking the action is already complete in the past. It always implies a strong connection with the present though action took place in the past. Generally, the following adverbs and conjunctions are used to express the preceding action. For example: ‘Ever, just, recently, already, yet, till (time), so far, of late, lately, before, (by) by the time, after’ etc.
(i) I have just seen that film.
(ii) I have already had my breakfast.
(iii) ‘Ever’ means ‘any time in the past’ and ‘always’.
(iv) ‘So far, yet, till’ means ‘upto now’, upto this. (negative implication)
(v) Of late, lately (recently, used only in Present Perfect Tense)
NOTE ‘Just’ is used in the sense of ‘already’. Other meanings of ‘just’ are ‘now’ and ‘exactly’.
(B) Present Perfect + Point of time = Simple Past
It should be noted that point of time in the past indicates that action took place at a point in the past. The point of time in the past is expressed by ‘Since, ever since, last, yesterday, the other day, ago, before, back’ formerly, (any time in the past) etc.
For example:
(i) She has returned two days ago/before. (omit ‘has’)
(ii) She returned two days ago. (Correct)
(C) Present Indefinite + Time expression = Present Perfect
This tense can also be used with ‘since, for, how long, whole, all, throughout, all along’ etc to express time expression.
For example:
(i) He has known me for two years.
(ii) She has owned this parlour since 2002.
