現在完了

The present perfect simple tense

Form:

• subject + have/has + past participle (+ object)

Examples:

• I've eaten lunch.
• He's walked to the station.
• She's been to England.
• We've seen that film.
• They've arrived.

So how do we use the present perfect simple?

It depends on your purpose.

The present perfect simple tense has several functions.

Example 1

• I've lived in Spain.
• She's studied economics.

These sentences are past and finished. There are not any time contexts. They are information about life experiences.

Example 2

• I've lived in Japan for 5 years.
• He's worked at Sony since 1998.

These sentences are past and present. There are time contexts. They have not finished. There are two important phrases:

• for + duration
• since + date

Example 3

• She's (just) drunk some wine.
• They've (just) been to the supermarket.

These sentences are recent past and just finished. There are no time contexts but the speakers understand the time is recent. We can add the word "just" to emphasize very recent actions.

Example 4

• We've been to New Zealand five times.
• He's failed his driving test 3 times.

These sentences are about life experience, from birth to now. We say how many times we have done the action, such as:

• never
• once
• twice
• three times
• a few times
• several times
• lots of times

I recommend studying irregular past participles.