Page 19 - Dedication

1.3.3 The present perfect tense "Have/has + the past

participle":

The Present Perfect Tense is utilised to refer to time

periods; something that happened up until recently or something

that happened but its action is connected to now. This tense can

be utilised to talk about past experiences e.g. I have been to

Spain or I have ridden a camel. You could utilise it to refer to

time periods that have not been finished yet e.g. I have eaten a lot

of sweets today.

In American English, the present perfect tense is utilised a

lot less frequently and the past simple is utilised more. The

Americans tend to utilise the past simple tense more often than

the present perfect.

Have a look at the following table:

British English American English

- Mark feels ill. He has - Mark feels ill. He ate too

eaten too much. much.

- James has just left the - James just left the

house. house.

- I have not read the - I did not read the novel

novel yet. yet.

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