Elementary Grammar

Elementary · Grammar Reference

Unit 12 — Present Perfect

Present Perfect · PS vs PP · ever/never/yet/just/already

12.1 Present Perfect

1 The Present Perfect is formed with have/has + past participle.

2 The Present Perfect refers to an action or experience that happened at some time before now.

She's travelled to most parts of the world.Have you ever been in a car accident?

Positive and negative

Subject	Auxiliary	(not)
I / We / You / They	have	(not) been	to the Czech Republic.
He / She / It	has

📌 Note

I've been = I have been · We've been = We have been
They've been = They have been

Question

Q. word	Auxiliary	Subject	Verb
Where	have	I / you / we / they	been?
	has	she / he / it

Yes / No questions and short answers

Question	Short answers
Have you been to Russia?	Yes, I have. / No, I haven't.

been and gone

She's gone to Portugal. (= she's there now)She's been to Portugal. (= now she has returned)

12.2 Past Simple and Present Perfect

1 If we want to say when an action happened, we use the Past Simple not the Present Perfect.

She went to Russia two years ago.I was in a crash when I was 10.

2 Notice the time expressions used with the Past Simple.

last night / yesterday / in 1990 / at three o'clock / on Monday

12.3 Indefinite time

ever and never

We use ever in questions.

Have you ever been to Russia?

We use never in negative sentences.

I've never been to Russia.

yet, just and already

We use yet in negative sentences and questions.

Have you done your homework yet?I haven't done it yet (but I'm going to).

We use just in positive sentences.

I have just done it (a short time before now).

We use already in positive sentences.

I have already done it (before now).