perfect and conti tenses

1. Present perfect
This tense has three main uses .As the name suggest , this tense is used
for those actions/ events that started in the past but have some kind of
relationship with the present .

2. Use of present perfect tense
The tense is used for those actions / events that started in the past and have
continued upto the moment of speaking and may or may not continue in
future and the action in the past have result in now.
1)During his stay he he has earned a good name.
2) He has lived here ever since.

3. The second use of present perfect is resultative use- that is the focus on
the completion and the result of activity.
Examples
He has published six books.( you can see the books )
She has gone to the Jaipur.(She is in Jaipur now)
2)The third use of present perfect is experiential use. This participant has
done something in the indefinite time in the past but he still has the
knowledge or experience.
Examples
1) I have seen the Taj .
2)I have been the student of this college.

4. Difference between simple past and present
perfect
• The difference between the two is that whereas in the simple past ,
the focus is on the time of activity: the focus in the present perfect is
on the current relevance or result of the past action.
• A: Have some breakfast .
• B: I have just had my breakfast(I am not hungry)
• I had my breakfast. ( can answer the question
• : When did you have breakfast ?Further , it does not say anything
about the current relevance . )

5. Present perfect progressive
• We use present perfect continuous for an activity that has recently
stopped or just stopped.
• There is a connection with now
Examples
You are out of your breath. Have you been running (you’re out of
breath now)
Paul is very tired. He’s been working hard.(he’s tired now)

6. Formation
• The present perfect progressive is formed by using have/has+been
+(base form+ing) since/for.
• Negative sentences are formed by adding not after have/ has.
• Interrogative sentences are formed by bringing have/has before the
subject and adding not immediately after the subject
Examples
I have been waiting for her since morning.
You have been doing nothing since I saw you last.
Has the child not been playing since morning.

7. Use of present perfect continuous tense
• Present perfect continuous tense is used for an action which began in
the past and is continuing at the moment of speaking.
Examples
We have been waiting for her for an hour
What have you been doing since morning?
Present perfect continuous for action repeated over a period of time:
Debbie is a very good tennis player. She’s been playing since she was
eight.
Every morning they meet in the same cafe. They’ve been going there
for years.

8. Past perfect
• Sometimes we talk about something that happened in the past:
Sarah arrived at the party.
This is the starting point of the story .then if we want to talk about
things that happened before this time, we use past perfect..
When sarah arrived at the party paul had already gone home.
More examples
When we got home last night , we found that somebody had broken
into the flat.

9. Comparison between Present perfect and
past perfect.
• Have seen
---------------------|-------------
Past now
Who is that woman ? I’ve never
seen her before.
We are not hungry. We have just
had lunch.
• Had seen
____________past________now
I didn’t know who she was I had
never seen her before
We were not hungry . We had just
had lunch.

10. Past simple and the past perfect
A) Was Tom there when you
arrived?
B) Yes, but he left soon
afterwards.
Kate was not at home when I
phoned .
She was at her mother’s home.
A) Was Tom there when you
arrived ?
B) No, he had already left.
Kate had just got home when I
phoned.
She had been at her mother’s
home.

11. Past perfect continuous
• Past perfect continuous tense shows that a certain action started in
the past was in progress before a given time in the past.
• Formation
Past perfect tense is formed by using had+been+present
participle(verb+ing). Negative sentence are formed by placing not after
had , question are formed by bringing had before the subject.
I was very tired . I had been working hard all day.
He was out of breath.He had been running for an hour.

12. Yesterday Morning I got up and looked out of the window . The sun was shining , but the
ground was very wet.
It had been raining .
It was not raining when I looked out of the window ;the sun was shining but it had been
raining before.
When the boys came into the house , their clothes were dirty, their hair
was untidy and one of them had a black eye . They’d been fighting.
I was very tired when I got home .I’d been working hard all day.
You can say that something had been happening for a period of time
before something else happened:
We’d been playing tennis about half an hour whe it started to rain
heavily.

13. Present perfect continuous and past perfect
continuous
• Present perfect continuous
• I hope that bus come soon, I’ve
been waiting for 20
minutes.(before now)
• James is out of breath he’s been
running
• Past perfect continuous
• At last the bus came . I’d been
waiting for 20 minutes(before
the bus came)
• James was out of breath. He had
been running.

14. Future perfect tense
• The future Perfect tense is formed by using will/ shall +have+past
participle form of the verb.Negative statements are formed by adding
not afte will/ shall, and question by bringing will/ shall before the
subject.
• I have finished this work by the evening.
• They will not have done anything until you guide them.
• will they have run away before the police run after them?

15. Use of future Perfect tense
• The future perfect tense is used for an action completed in future
before a given time.
1) He’ll have finished his homework by tomorrow morning.
2) He will have reached Delhi by now.

16. Future perfect continuous
• The future perfect tense is used to denote the progress of an action
before another given time in the future.
Formation
It is formed by using will/shall+have+been+Present participle. Negative
sentences are formed by using not after will/shall . Questions are
formed by bringing will/shall before the subject and placing not after
the subject
1) By 2016 he’ll have been studying here for four years.
2) In a few years time he will have been serving this firm for over thirty
years.

17. Use of Future perfect
• Like future Perfect tense future continuous tense is generally used
with a time expression . It shows that action will have been in
progress in the future a certain pint of time or for a certain duration
of time.
1)He will have been writing a novel for a year before he completes it.
2)By the end Of this month he will have been working in this office for
ten years.