Английский язык > Learn English with Rebecca [engVid RebeccaESL] > Past Simple Present Perfect

hi my name is Rebecca and in today's

lesson I'm going to show you a way to

differenti­ate between two very common

tenses used in English which are the

past simple and the present perfect

another lesson about that yes there are

a number of lessons on that subject and

that's because it can be a confusing

issue but I'm going to give you a

particular perspectiv­e which I hope will

help you to differenti­ate between these

two very common tenses all right so

let's have a look so let's start by

talking about the past simple tense in

English when do we use the past simple

tense we use the past simple tense to

talk about anything that has already

happened in the past had a finished time

in the past so if we look at this

graphic representa­tion of the past

simple you'll see here's the event in

the past it's finished and it's over and

here is now there's no connection all

right as such this event is finished and

over it's an action that finished and is

over in the past okay

on the contrary the present perfect

talks about something that happened in

the past and it's still true now so here

this the emphasis is on the length of

time right and on the condition that we

are talking about that exists between

now between a city a time in the past

and now whereas here we simply talked

about an action in the past in present

perfect we're talking about a condition

or a state or a status that exists

between the past and now and in fact it

includes the past and now okay let me

give you some examples and I hope you'll

understand a little bit better how this

works so for example when we're using

the past simple your question would be

something like this when did you get in

all right because you're talking about a

particular point of time in the past you

asked using the question word when when

did you get engaged the same question

asked in the present perfect would be a

little bit different it would be how

long have you been engaged how long have

you been engaged well we've been engaged

for one month or two months or two years

okay so here the answer would be that we

have been engaged for a period of time

here the answer would be a particular

date when you got engaged all right

let's look at some more common examples

when did you get married or in present

perfect the question would be how long

have you been married here you just want

to know actually when it happened and

here you want to know the length of time

or how long somebody has been married

all right you can use this in good and

bad situations in life okay ah when did

you get divorced or how long have you

been divorced

okay another one when did you graduate

all right or present perfect how long

have you been out of school in North

America when we say out of school we

don't mean elementary school or high

school we mean also University and

college all right it's referred to as

school in the past simple we could say

when did you get this job in present

perfect we could say how long have you

worked here or how long have you been

employed you don't always have to use

the word bin okay you can also use

whatever verb you need but in this case

we could say how long have you worked

here how long have you been employed

alright again bad news when did you lose

your job when now we're asking the

or the date or the month but if you want

to know how long somebody didn't have

their job then we would say how long

have you been out of work or how long

have you been unemployed okay when did

you move to Toronto okay that's one

question present perfect question would

be how long have you been in Toronto

okay again the question is asking for

different kinds of informatio­n here the

question is asking for the action and

the time exactly when something happened

and here the question is asking about a

condition or how long that condition

existed or that status existed all right

let's look at a few other examples when

did you hear the news or how long have

you known the news in this case you have

to change the verb to make sense for it

to make sense right or when did you meet

John that would be a past simple

question

when did you meet John present perfect

would be how long have you known John

right because he can't keep meeting John

if once you meet him

that's finished and it's over now you

know him so how long have you known John

let's give let's work on a couple of

other examples here if we want to ask a

question we would say when did you

arrive right and if you change that to

present perfect you could say how long

have you been here right when did you

wake up would become how long have you

been up or how long have you been awake

alright so you see that past simple and

present perfect are talking about

different kinds of informatio­n and by

understand­ing what informatio­n you need

you can decide whether you need to use

the past simple or the present perfect

okay I hope this has helped you to

understand

this particular point if you'd like to

do some more practice on this subject

and this topic we have a quiz you can go

to our website wwlp.com thanks very much

thanks for watching