The Present Perfect to Talk about Experiences

Hey, it's Annemarie with Speak Confident English and this week's Confident English lesson, you're going to fine tune your English grammar skills with the present perfect tense to talk about your life experiences. What makes the present perfect tense? So challenging is number one, share some similarities with the past.

Simple, with its focus on past events, and number two, it often uses complex time expressions such as ever, never yet before, and so far on top of all of that, many languages do not have an exact equivalent to the present perfect tense in English. As a result, it can be difficult to grasp its meaning and usage, but not after today. In this lesson, I'm going to share with you some concrete examples of how to use the present perfect tense to talk about your life experiences using those keyword again, words such as ever, never yet before and so far.

But first, if you don't already know, I am Annemarie, an English confidence and fluency coach. Everything I do is designed to help you get the confidence you want for your life and work in English. Now, before I get into those specific examples of how we can use the present perfect tense with those time expressions to talk about your life experiences, I want to do a quick recap on the structure we use for the present perfect form so you can use it accurately and why it's important in English.

So let's start with the structure. In a positive sentence, we have the subject followed by has or have, and then the past partisan of the verb. I want you to think back to your earliest English lessons.

You might remember memorizing verbs such as eat, ate, eaten, drink, drank, drunk, drive, drove, driven. It's that third column or third form of the verb that is the past. Partisan with regular verbs, it's quite simple.

It's the ed form, for example, work worked, worked in a negative structure. We have a subject followed by has or have then the word not followed by the past partisan bowl. You're going to see me use these structures again and again in all the examples I share with you today.

The reason this is so important is when we have this structure, it communicates the present perfect form in English, and what that means is it helps English speakers connect events from the past to the present moment. It helps us understand time in that particular way, and this is why it's so important to use when talking about our life experiences. Life experiences highlight events in the past, but your life is not finished yet.

So there's connection to this present moment. If, for example, I ask you about your travel experiences, I'm asking about any and all travel experiences you've had at any point in your life up to this moment. And again, your life isn't finished yet, so we're connecting those past events to the present moment.

The same is true if I ask you about your overall work experience or your relationship experiences, and in each case, not only do we use that present perfect structure, we also often use those time expressions ever, never before and so on. So let's take a look at how we do that. We're going to start with a focus on the words ever, never, and before.

Then we'll move on to yet and already. And finally so far at the end, I also have some practice questions for you to make sure that you're able to use these structures accurately to talk about any life experience. So ever, never, and before the words ever and never are used by English speakers to talk about whether an event has happened at any point in time of someone's life.

For example, have you ever worked with Jessica on a project? What that question is asking is, at any point in time of your life up to this moment, have you worked with this particular person on a project? If you're answering in a positive way, you might say, yes, I have worked with Jessica on a project we worked together a few months ago.

Or in a negative response you might say, no, I've never worked with Jessica. What that tells me is if we're discussing your entire career with a particular company or on a particular team, there is no point in time at which you've worked with this particular person on a project. Those words at any time are the key to understanding the use of the word ever.

In fact, we could even replace the word ever with at any time. For example. At any time have you worked with Jessica on a project in conversations, on work experience, travel experience, general life experiences, and so much more?

We often use the question starter, have you ever? And when we do, so it is asking if at any point in time of your life have you had a particular experience? Here are two more examples of that.

Have you ever lived abroad? In other words, at any point in your life, have you had the opportunity to live abroad? A second question, have you ever regretted a big purchase?

I want to stop here for a moment and go back to talking about the overall usage of the present perfect form. How is it connected to the past and how does that past link to the present moment? If I ask you, have you ever lived abroad?

And you say, yes, I have. I lived abroad for a year when I was at university. That past event is finished.

Maybe that was 20 years ago, it's over. However you are a life again is not yet over. So if I'm asking you about your overall experience, if at any point in time in your life have you experienced something, it is the present perfect form that helps us understand those links.

And now let's add on how we might use the word before with the words ever and never. The word before implies that up to the present moment, we have not had a particular experience. Of course, that could change in the future.

It might change later today. It might change in a few months, but up to this moment, we have not had that experience. Here's an example.

Have you ever been to this restaurant before? No, I've never been here before. This is my first time.

Using that word before means, again, up to this present moment. It has never happened, but it's about to change. In addition to that, we can use the word before in an affirmative statement as well, to say that you have had a particular experience in the past.

For example, if someone says to you, I'm thinking about going to Europe this summer. Have you ever been to Estonia? You might respond with, yes, I've been there before.

It's been a long time, but I remember loving it and I highly recommend it. Here's another example. Have you used this task management platform before?

Yes, I have used it before, but it's been a long time. I might need a little bit of a refresher before we move on to the words yet and already with the present perfect tense, I want to ask you a few questions to think about. Have you ever lived abroad or have you lived abroad before?

Have you ever regretted a big purchase? Have you had an unexpected career transition before? Think about how you would use the present perfect form with the words ever, never, and before in your response.

And now let's take a look at yet and already when we use the word yet with the present perfect form, it indicates or emphasizes that we expect something to happen soon. For example, if I say, this week has been so busy, I haven't even started preparing for my interview yet. That word yet emphasizes that I expect things to change soon.

I haven't started to prepare yet, but I intend to begin doing so soon. Here's another example. Have you watched the new Indiana Jones movie yet?

Not yet, but I got tickets to see at this weekend. Again, we're emphasizing the fact that something is going to change or is about to happen soon when we use that word yet to talk about life experiences so far and add on the word. But it allows us to share a plan of action.

For example, I haven't asked my boss for a raise yet, but I plan to do so next week, or Viola hasn't moved yet, but she is looking for a new condo. When someone asks us a question in the present, perfect tense with the word, yet we can answer in the affirmative with the word already to say that yes, something has happened before the present time by now or before the particular time in question. Let me give you a quick example.

Perhaps your friend knows that you've been thinking about a applying for a promotion at your company, so she asks you, oh, have you applied for that manager position yet? And you might respond by saying, yes, I've already submitted everything I need. I'm just waiting to hear back from them.

When you use that word already, you're indicating that you have completed everything that was needed by that particular time, by the present moment. And now let's talk about the words so far with the present. Perfect.

Just like with the word yet so far can be used to say that a past experience is true a to the present moment. It can also be used to mean to a limited extent or a certain extent. Let me give you a couple of examples.

I've watched three episodes of the Queen's Gambit so far, and I've loved it by using those words so far. What I'm saying is up to this moment, I've watched those episodes and I've loved it. It might change.

It might change after tomorrow. Perhaps I won't enjoy it quite as much as I have up to this particular point. I'm also indicating that that is what is true up to this present moment.

Here's another example. So far I haven't been successful in getting my toddler to sleep in her own bed again, that might change tomorrow, but that is what is true as of right now, up to this present moment. Now that you have concrete examples of how to use the present perfect tense to talk about your life experiences with words such as ever, never before, yet already, and so far, I want you to practice.

I have three questions for you, and I want you to try using these structures and these time expression words in your answers. Question number one, have you ever taken an online class before? And if so, would you recommend it to someone who has never taken one?

How would you answer those questions? And in your answers, I want you to use the present perfect tense plus some of these time expression words. Question number two, have you ever been asked an odd question in a job interview before?

If so, how did you handle it? And number three, have you ever participated in a competition before? How did you prepare for it?

As always, you can share your example questions with me below. Thank you so much for watching this video for liking and subscribing to my Speak Confident English YouTube channel. It really means a lot to me.

I look forward to seeing you in my next video.