Have a look at the perfect tenses in English: present perfect, present perfect continuous, past perfect and past perfect continuous.
| TENSE | USE |
EXAMPLES |
SIGNAL WORDS |
| Present perfect |
• to put emphasis on the result
• to express an action that is still going on
• to express an action that stopped recently • for a finished action that has an influence on the present • for an action that has(n't) taken place before |
He has studied two units
She has lived here for two years I have made coffee I have lost my keys I have never been to Canada |
since, for, ever, just, never, yet, so far, till now, up to now, already, recently, lately |
| Present perfect continuous |
•
to emphasise the duration or continuous course of an action
• temporary situation • an action that has just stopped |
I have been running for an hour
I have been living here for a month I have been watching a film on TV |
How long , since, for, so far, up to now, |
| Past perfect | • For past actions or situations which happened before anther past action or situation
• For events before a specific time in the past |
When I arrived, they had gone to bed
By 12:30 they had finished lunch |
already, by ..., until that day |
| Past perfect continuous |
• to emphasise the duration or course of an action which happened before another past action | The flowers were wet because it had been raining | for, the whole day, |
No comments:
Post a Comment