The Present Perfect
The Present Perfect
Use
We use the Present Perfect for linking a finished event or action with the present. We use it when we are thinking about the past and the present at the same time.
They’ve seen that film.
They've seen tells us two things.
They saw the film in the past.
They know what the film is about.
It doesn't tell us when they saw the film. For that information, we would use the Past Simple.
They saw that film last month.
Notice some sentences from the text:
They have always asked their students ‘when?’, ‘where?’, ‘which?’, ‘how many?’ and ‘who?’ (2).
(Teachers asked their students wh-questions in the past, although we don't know when. They still ask wh-questions now.)
Students who have learnt to answer them correctly have developed the thinking skills of recalling, repeating and listing, and of understanding (3).
(Students learned to answer questions correctly, and can still do that. They also developed thinking skills, which they continue to develop.)
The CLIL approach has attempted to add to these concrete thinking skills by adopting more abstract, complex and analytical questioning (5).
(The CLIL approach attempted to add concrete thinking skills in the past. It still does)
In none of the sentences do we have a fixed time in the past. They are all ‘at some time up to NOW’.
More about the Present Perfect:
Be careful:
The Present Perfect (‘I have worked’, for example) looks like tenses in other languages such as French (j’ai travaillé), or German (ich habe gearbeitet). However, IT DOES NOT HAVE THE SAME MEANING!
The English Present Perfect tense links the past and the present.
When there is no link, and we only want to talk about the past, we use the Past Simple (I worked).
Here are four ways in which we use the Present Perfect: