The Present Perfect Simple Tense
To make the positive present perfect tense:
• Use ‘have’ / ‘has’ + the past participle.
• Make the past participle by adding ‘ed’ to regular verbs (for example, ‘play’ becomes ‘played’).
There are a few verbs that change their spelling when you add ‘ed’ (for example, ‘study’ becomes ‘studied’).
We also have some completely irregular verbs.
Positive
Positive Short Form
• I have played
• I’ve played
• You have worked
• You’ve worked
• He has written
• He’s written
• She has walked
• She’s walked
• It has rained
• It’s rained
• We have travelled
• We’ve travelled
• They have studied
• They’ve studied
The negative is really simple too. Just put ‘not’ after ‘have’ or ‘has’:
Negative
Negative Short Form
• I have not eaten breakfast today
• I haven’t eaten
• You have not been to Asia
• You haven’t been
• He has not seen the new film
• He hasn’t seen
• She has not played tennis
• She hasn’t played
• It has not snowed this winter
• It hasn’t snowed
• We have not slept all night
• We haven’t slept
• They have not tried the food
• They haven’t tried
To make a question, put ‘have’ or ‘has’ in front of the subject:
‘Yes / No’ Questions
• Have I missed the bus?
• Have you visited London?
• Has he worked as a waiter before?
• Has she met John?
• Has it been cold this week?
• Have we arrived too early?
• Have they studied English grammar before?
As you can imagine, for ‘wh’ questions, we just put the question word before ‘have’ or ‘has’:
‘Wh’ Questions
• Where have I left my umbrella?
• What have you done today?
• Why has he gone already?
• Where has she been in the UK?
• Why has it rained so much this summer?
• What have we done?
• Where have they learned English before?