The Perfect Tenses
The Perfect Tenses Overview
Look at the example sentence below:
I have lived in Malta for many years.
The verb tells us that:
I started to live in Malta some time ago.
I am still living in Malta.
We can imagine standing at a point (NOW) and looking back to a point in the past.
We can see all the period in between then and now.
The verb ‘have lived’ links the 2 points in time - the date I started living in Malta, and the present.
I have studied English for a few years.
(from a time in the past up to NOW)
Perfect Tenses link two points in time. They can refer to past, present or future.
Form:
Have + Past Participle
Past
I/you/we/they had lived
he/she/it
Present
I/you/we/they have lived
he/she/it
Future
I/you/we/they will have lived
he/she/it
Question Forms:
Have you seen the film? Has he seen the film?
Had they read the book?
When will you have finished your homework?
Negatives:
I haven’t seen the film. He hasn’t seen the film.
We hadn’t read finished eating.
They won’t (will not) have finished their homework by six o’clock.
Perfect Tenses are made with the auxiliary verb HAVE and the past participle. (The past participle is the third form of the verb. The first form is the infinitive, and the second form is the Past Simple. The third form is the same as the second form - except for irregular verbs. Unfortunately, like irregular Past Simple forms, these have to be learnt!)
Examples: