Present perfect

The grammatical verbal tense „present perfect“ is one of three basic tenses to describe actions which took place in the past. As the name indicates, the present perfect has a close relation to the situation and actions taking place in the present. Therefore it distinguishes from the simple past and the past perfect which emphasize the completed action in the past.

Morphology
The present perfect is a compound tense, which means that an auxiliary verb is needed to put a verb into present perfect. In this case, the auxiliary verb is “to have”.
In addition to that, the past participle form of the verb is needed, which is formed by adding –ed to the infinite form when the verb is conjugated regular. Irregular verbs alter their vowels. While the main verb stays in its participle form, the auxiliary verb is conjugated.

So a complete verb form in present perfect would be:
“I have played”. Or:
“She has played”.

Use in grammar:
While in other Germanic languages – like in German – there is no particular difference left to recognize between the simple past and the present perfect, in English their meanings and aspects differ from each other.
The present perfect is rather used to put emphasis on the result of an action than to tell that the action actually took place:
“Mary has cooked dinner.”
Saying this, the speaker actually wants to tell that dinner is ready and it is time to eat. The fact that Mary cooked is less important.
“I have fallen into the lake.”
Again, the action is put in the background: Most likely the speaker wants to tell that or why he is soaked with water. The actual action of falling into the water is unimportant.

By putting emphasis on the result, the importance for the present is also pointed out: The (completed) action in the past still has influence on the present tense:
“Tim has broken his leg.”
The action of breaking his leg is over, but still he cannot walk.

Sometimes the present perfect is used in this context to tell that an action has just finished a very short time ago or that it is not over yet.
“I have just started to clean the window.”
The beginning of the action is over, but not the action as a whole.

The present perfect is used as well to tell that something happened not at all, once or couple of times, neglecting a certain point of time:
“I have never seen an elephant.”
“We have been to Chicago once.”
“They have met me three times so far.”

In conclusion, the present perfect can answer the question how often or if things took place.

Questions
To formulate questions in the present perfect, the auxiliary verb is put in first position:
“Have you checked the heater?”
“Have you done your homework, yet?”

Passive
The present perfect can be put into passive, to describe what happened TO the subject and not what the subject’s action has been.
For this, another auxiliary verb is needed, in this case “to be”. The auxiliary verb is set into past participle as well and is located between the first auxiliary verb “to have” and the main verb:
“They have been defeated in soccer.”
“We have been seen by our friends in the bus.”


As shown above, the main verb and the first auxiliary verb do not change their forms in the passive.

Progressive form
As most tenses in English, the present perfect has a progressive form which emphasizes the duration of an action:
“I have been singing for two hours.”

It is used as well to describe ongoing actions which started in the past:
“I’ve been living here since 1999.”

And it is used to put emphasis on the influence on the present:
“I have been sleeping all day (so now I am refreshed).”

In this case, the past participle of “to be” is used as well, yet it describes – in combination with the progressive form – an active action.

Differences between the past forms
To mention when a (completed) action took place in the past or to bring a narrative aspect into the past tense, the simple past is used instead of the present perfect. The past perfect is used to describe actions completed even before the action in the simple past took place. So the present perfect’s relation to the present tense becomes even more obvious.

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