Pre-Intermediate Grammar

Pre-Intermediate · Grammar Reference

Unit 6 — Present Perfect

present perfect · PP vs past simple · question tags

6.1 Present Perfect

Form

have / has + past participle

	+	–	?
I / you / we / they	have seen	haven't seen	Have you seen?
he / she / it	has seen	hasn't seen	Has she seen?

Use

Life experiences (no specific time): I've been to Japan.
Recent events with present relevance: She's just finished her homework.
Unfinished time periods: We've lived here since 2010 / for 15 years.

Key time words: ever, never, just, already, yet, since, for, recently

6.2 Present Perfect vs Past Simple

Present Perfect	Past Simple
No specific time / life experience	Specific finished time in the past
I've visited Rome. (at some point)	I visited Rome last year.
She's lost her keys. (relevance now)	She lost her keys yesterday. (finished event)

📌 Note

Use Past Simple with: yesterday, last week, in 2010, ago, when I was…
Use Present Perfect with: ever, never, just, already, yet, since, for, recently

6.3 Question tags

A question tag is a short question added to the end of a sentence.

Rule	Example
Positive sentence → negative tag	You're tired, aren't you?
Negative sentence → positive tag	She doesn't know, does she?
Auxiliary in sentence → same auxiliary in tag	They've left, haven't they?
No auxiliary (PS) → do/does/did	He works here, doesn't he?

📌 Note

Rising intonation = genuine question. Falling intonation = asking for confirmation.