LESSON 7

THE PERFECT TENSES

PRESENT PERFECT
Present perfect is a verbal time that expresses actions influenced by the present, that is, action
that are still happening or have been concluded recently.
Function
The present perfect is used to indicate a link between the present and the past.
The present perfect is used to describe:
 An action or situation that started in the past and continues in present,
Example: I have worked at Mutasa since 2018.
 An action that has not finished yet
Example: The kids haven’t finished their homework yet.
 An action when the time is not important
Example: My family has been to London.

Formation
We form the present perfect using:
The auxiliary verb to have + past participle of the main verb
The past participle of regular verbs ends in d, ed, ied.
Example: Played, arrived, looked
Forms
Affirmative form
We use the structure of:
Subject + to have + past participle
Example: My parents have visited Portugal

Negative form
We use the structure of:
Subject + have not +past participle
Example: My parent have not visited Portugal
Interrogative form
We use the structure of:
To have + not + subject + past participle
Example: Have my parents visited Portugal?

PAST PERFECT
I had sung.
The past perfect tense is quite an easy tense to understand and to use. This tense talks about the
“past in the past”.
Form
Subject + Auxiliary verb HAVE + Main verb
Example:
Example: I had finished my work.
 Had you arrived?
 She had not gone to school.
When speaking with the past perfect tense, we often contract the subject and auxiliary verb:
I had = I’d
She had = she’d
The past perfect tense expresses action in the past before another action in the past; this is the
past in the past, for example: When we arrived, the train had left.
 I wasn’t hungry, I had just eaten.
 Mary wasn’t at home when I arrived. Really? Where had she gone?
Read careful the text and try to understand how the verb tenses are used:
The development of the science and technology has brought new developments in the area of
medicine.
An important development in medicine was the invention of anesthesia. According to the history
of medicine, many years ago, if one was to go for a surgery operation, this person had to be
beaten with a hammer to faint. They then would operate on him/her. It was painful and risky
since in some occasions patients never recovered from the fainting! Nowadays, before any
surgery, the person gets an injection of anesthesia, which makes him/her feel nothing during the
surgery. It is safer than the hammer method!

Modern medicine has also invented incubators. Incubators are small containers used for keeping
premature babies alive. Many years ago, if children were born prematurely, they died, because of
lack of medical aid. Nowadays, if a child is born prematurely, he/she is put in incubator, an
environment closed to his/her mother’s womb.
Another important development in medicine was the invention of vaccination. Modern medicine
can prevent disease through vaccination. Many diseases like polio and small pox have been
eradicated because of vaccination. In Mozambique, there are many vaccination campaigns
against different diseases like malaria.

FUTURE PERFECT
Form
The future perfect is composed of two elements
the simple future of the verb "to have" (will have) + the past participle of the main verb
Subject + will have + past participle of the main verb
He will have finished.
I will have finished.

To arrive, future perfect tense

Affirmative Negative Interrogative Negative interrogative
I will have arrived I won't have arrived Will I have arrived? Won't I have arrived?
You will have arrived You won't have arrived Will you have arrived? Won't you have arrived?
He will have arrived He won't have arrived Will he have arrived? Won't he have arrived?
We will have arrived We won't have arrived Will we have arrived? Won't we have arrived?
They will have arrived They won't have arrived Will they have arrived? Won't they have arrived?

Function
The future perfect tense refers to a completed action in the future. When we use this tense we are
projecting ourselves forward into the future and looking back at an action that will be completed
some time later than now. It is most often used with a time expression.
Examples
 I will have been here for six months on June 23rd.
 By the time you read this I will have left.
 You will have finished your report by this time next week.
 Won't they have arrived by 5:00?
 Will you have eaten when I pick you up?