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Present Perfect and Past Simple

Average: 4.4 (7 votes)
Wed, 03/10/2010 - 08:59 — Chris McCarthy

Both these tenses can be used to talk about actions that happened in the past but which tense we use depends on the situation.

We need to use present perfect if...

  • The event has a present result
  • We use a time reference (e.g. since, for) to say when something, that is still happening, started.
  • We start the sentence by saying ‘this is the first time’
  • We are talking about life experiences

We need to use past simple if...

  • We are talking about a finished action in the past.
  • We are talking about something that happened at a definite time in the past
  • We are talking about events in the lives of dead people

In the following paragraph, choose which form of the verb we need to use. Good luck!

Dance For All, South Africa

Dance For All is a company that gives ballet training to young people from the townships. They opened/have opened their doors in 1991 and trained/have trained many wonderful dancers since then. Chris danced/has danced there from the age of seven. When he started/has started he was really excited by the movement and the freedom of dance. Now he studies dance every day and would like to dance abroad. Dance for All is going from strength to strength. To begin with they only have had/ had the ballet program, but now they also give contemporary, African and outreach classes. Sadly, in 2008 one of the co founders of Dance For All, Phyllis Spira has passed away/passed away. She was/has been an amazing woman and inspired everyone around her with the quality of her dance and her spirit. Here’s hoping that Dance For All will continue their wonderful work for years to come!

For more info on Dance For All and their work go to www.danceforall.co.za

Today's lesson is by Caroline Devane, EC Cape Town English school

Link: How to use the present perfect

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Comments

Wed, 03/10/2010 - 09:43 — ynastia

Present Perfect and Past Simple

Nice quiz. Without mistakes, but I'm still uncertain when it comes to Present Perfect vs Past Simple. Sad

Wed, 03/10/2010 - 11:38 — kristin b

Present perfect and time reference - question

I managed without mistakes.

But I was somewhat confused about the first paragraph.
The reason is your explanation of present perfect - that we should use this tense when we use a time reference to when something started, that is still happening. In this sentence you refer to the year when this dance company was started, and it still exists...

Have I misunderstood your explanation?
Do you have some more examples?

Wed, 03/10/2010 - 12:56 — Chris McCarthy

Good question. The school

Good question. The school opened in 1991, that is "something that happened at a definite time in the past" and so we should use the past simple. The clause of that sentence is to show when the school opened, not how long it has been open. When we want to focus on the length of time we using "for" and "since" we use the present perfect.

"The school has been open since 1991."

Wed, 03/10/2010 - 17:18 — Yura

Very Useful

Very nice Task!!! I like such kind of choice! Applause
One mistake - with the sentence "To begin with...", I thought that it is the same‘This is the first time’... Worried
Thank you for the Lesson, it is very useful!!! Smile

Thu, 03/11/2010 - 05:03 — altaf

danced or has danced

This is the type of exercise that we need
to have every now and then. As all others feel
I too had a bit of uncertainity in
placing simple or Present perfect.Hope continuous
usage may bring consistency.Am I right?

Mon, 03/15/2010 - 12:21 — justharry

Justharry

Hi....... i got 10/10. Really that was informative...........

Mon, 03/15/2010 - 15:32 — clrissa Hassan

It's really useful

Cool It's really useful grammer...I always try to show my students the difference between the two tenses. It's brightly clear when reading a story..Smile

Mon, 03/22/2010 - 12:10 — Nino Mindiashvili

two mistakes :\ good

two mistakes :\

good lesson when I speak I always want to use only past simply

Thu, 06/10/2010 - 10:19 — Nabiullah Yousufzai

one mistake

i made one mistake in number 5
thanks for this useful lesson