PAST TENSE VS PRESENT PERFECT

TENSE
What are the differences?
PAST TENSE
 In the simplest sense, verbs can be conjugated in reference to time.
 Present tense verbs take place in the present, and future tense verbs take place in
the future.
 Past tense verbs refer to actions or events in the past.
 They can be regular verbs that simply end with a "d" or an "ed" (e.g She studied
English last night) or they can be irregular (They bought a dictionary yesterday)
and change their spelling to show the past tense.
Simple Past Tense

 Simple Past Tense Simple past indicates that an activity or situation began and ended at a
particular time in the past.

 The patterns are:

(+) S + V2 + O + C or S + was/were + O + C
(-) S + didn’t + V1 + O + C or S + was/were + not + O + C
(?) Did + S + V1 + O + C ? Or Was/were + S + O + C ?

 In the Past Tense, we can use specific time, such as last night, yesterday, two days ago, last
year, a months ago, etc..
Examples of Past Tense:
1. At three o’clock in the morning, Ellise .........(study).
2. When the teacher ............(enter) the room, the students were talking.
3. We .........(see) this movie last night.
4. I .............(go) to the library yesterday.
5. He ................(not, eat) apples in the morning.
6. We ....................(not, understand) the materials last week.
7. I ...................(read) a book about math two days ago.
8. Ryan ...................(not, know) the truth.
9. She ...................(not, bake) a cake last night.
10. They .................(repair) a bicycle a week ago.
Past Continuous Tense

 Past Progressive Tense

(+) S + was/were + V-ing + O + C
(-) S + was/were + not + V-ing + O + C
(?) Was/were + S + V-ing + O + C ?
Past Continuous Tense
 The past continuous tense or past progressive is used to indicate:
 • An action which was occuring in the past and was interupted by another action, the
general rule is: WHEN + Simple Past Tense, Past Progressive When John called me, I
was taking a shower.
 Simple Past Tense WHILE Past Progressive Jon called me while I was taking a shower.
 • Two action occuring at the same time in the past. In this case, the following rules usually
apply:
 Past Progressive WHILE Past Progressive Anita was watching the talent show program
while Joana was doing her homework.
 • An action which was occuring at some specific time in the past. Jamie and Andre were
studying in the library at 4 P.M yesterday.
PRESENT PERFECT TENSE

 Present Perfect Tense

(+) S + Have/has +V3/been + O + C
(-) S + Have/has + not +V3/been + O + C
(?) Have/has + S +V3/been + O + C ?
Present Perfect Tense

 Present perfect tense is used to indicate:

 Present Perfect Tense uses unspecific time.
 • An action that happened at an indefinite time in the past.
Brian has traveled around the world. Sam and Jill have been here.
 • An action that happened more than once in the past.
I have seen this movie three times.
 • An action that began in the past and still occuring in the present.
Joana has lived in the same house for six years. They have moved to bekasi since 2010.
 Uncompleted Action.
The rain hasn’t stopped yet.

 Note: In this case, we usually use for or since. For + duration of time Since + beginning of time
THANK YOU.
Have a nice day!