The Present Perfect Tense - Experiences

Regular Verbs

We use the present perfect tense for life experiences (any time up to now) and events occuring at least once in the past.

For I, You, We and They we use have and the past participle (V3).

For He, She and It, we use has and the past participle (V3).

For regular verbs we usually add ed to the infinitive to form the past participle (V3):

SubjectHAVEPast Participle (V3)
Ihaveclimbeda mountain before.
Youhaveplayedchess before.
Hehascookedlobster before.
Tomhaswatcheda ballet before.
Shehasdancedon stage before.
Sarahaspaintedon canvas before.
Ithassnowedhere before.
The townhasfloodedbadly before.
Wehavetravelledacross India before.
Theyhavesailedaround the World before.
The childrenhavewalkedto school before.

Tip!
* The past participle (V3) is usually the same as the verb in the past simple (V2).

We add d to infinitives ending with e:

InfinitivePast Participle
movemoved
loveloved
fadefaded
produceproduced
manufacturemanufactured

We change y to ied for words ending in y:

InfinitivePast Participle
studystudied
carrycarried
trytried

Tip!
* We keep y if the letter before is a vowel:
plaied
played
enjoied
enjoyed

SubjectHAVEPast Participle
Ihavedancedon stage before.
Ihavestudiedmusic before.

Now try the quiz below!

The Present Perfect Tense - Regular Verbs

The Present Perfect Tense - Irregular Verbs

The Present Perfect Tense - Contractions

The Present Perfect Tense - Negatives

The Present Perfect Tense - Questions

The Present Perfect Tense - Short Answers

The Present Perfect Tense Vs the Past Simple Tense

The Present Perfect Tense - Review