Recognize Perfect Tenses

Perfect Tense is used in Languages to express an event that has been completed at a time in the past. It is called perfect because it is understood in the sense to be “complete”. The word ‘perfect’, in this sense actually means ‘complete. Below are the three kinds of perfect tense that are seen.

 Present Prefect Tense. Use this to express an action or a condition that occurred at some time in the past. Do not be confused by the word ‘present’ in the name of the present perfect tense. This tense expresses past time. The word present referred to the tense of the auxiliary verb ‘has’ or ‘have’

 Form the present perfect tense by using ‘has’ or ‘have’ with the past participle of a verb, EG: ‘has studied’, ‘have known’. The cake ‘has fallen’ in the oven. I ‘have promised’ to bering cakes for the bake sale. The present perfect tense can refer to completed action in past time only in an indefinite way. Adverbs such as yesterday cannot be added to make the time more specific. EG: We ‘have seen’ this movie. The beans ‘have grown’ taller.

 To be specific about completed past time, you would normally use the simple past tense. EG: We ‘saw’ this movie during spring break. The beans ‘grew’ a foot taller over the weekend. The present perfect tense can also be used to express the idea that an action or a condition ‘began in the past and is still happening’. To communicate this idea, you would normally add adverbs (or adverb phrases or clauses) of time. EG: Lionel ‘has studied’ ballet for two years. Beth Ann ‘has hit’ three home runs in a row.

 Past Perfect Tense. Use this to indicate that one past action or condition began and ended before another past action or condition started. Form the past perfect tense by using the auxiliary verb had with the poast participle of a verb: ‘had painted’, ‘had sung’. EG: Frank ‘won’ the race in the car whose carburetor he ‘had rebuilt’. [First Frank rebuilt the carburetor; the rebuilding was complete; then he won the race.]

 Future Perfect Tense. Use this to express one future action or condition that will begin and end before another future event starts. Form the future perfect tense by using ‘will have’ or ‘shall have’ with the past participle of a verb: ‘will have rested’, ‘shall have won’. EG. By August you ‘will have learned’ how to swim. [Learning to swim will be complete by the time another future event, the arrival of August, happens.]