Flabbergasting English: Present Perfect: Its Struture and Chunks.

Good Morning Flabbergasting English followers,

I have thought about a lot lately and decided to come up with this overwhelming topic on Present Perfect. It really caught my attention when I was teaching a private class and this student, suddenly, jumped off his chair and screamed: "Oh man, I got it!" and I asked him what he had gotten, so he said "Now I know how to use both Simple Past and Present Perfect, it used to be difficult for me because we, Brazlians, use different tenses in Portuguese such as: Simple Present and Past and Present Continuous whilst English speakers use Present Perfect."

Present Perfect is a tense used by all English speakers all over the world. They are used in these situations below:

Events that happened in the past, the experience is important, not the time. (no time specification).
Events that happened in the past and have relevance in the present.
Very recent past. (Just)

Present Perfect Structure - Do not forget it! Both have/haven't and has/hasn't are auxiliary verbs and they are chosen according to the person. The main verb of the sentence is in Past Participle(Third column of the verb table).

Have - I, You, We, They

Has - He, She, It

Positive = Subject(person) + have/has + Main verb(Past Participle) + object(complement)

Negative = Subject(person) + haven't/hasn't + Main verb(P. Participle) + object(complement)

Interrogative = have/has + Subject(person) + Main verb(P. Participle) + object(complement)

Eg.:

I have driven my parents's car so many times.(Situation 1)
My sister has been to Rio de Janeiro and she loved it.(Situation 1)
Homer Simpson hasn't been a good father.(Situation 2)
I've been to Australia, that's how I brushed up on my English skills.(Situation 2)
The plane has just landed.(Situation 3)
I've just finished my homework. (Situation 3)

There are some very imortant chunks (sets of sentences used in particular situations) used in Present Perfect that would surely make your life easier. Here you go;

I've never... She's never... (Eu nunca...)

Have you ever...? Has he ever...? (Você já...?)

I've just... She's just...(Eu acabei de...)

I've been to... He's been to...(Eu estive em...)

I hope y'all have learnt a lot throughout this topic.

Rodrigo Pelegrini Honorato

ESL Teacher

rphingles@yahoo.com.br