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Present Perfect mind map

Haveyou ever riddena horse? Haveyou ever seena chinchilla? Haveyou ever eatencaviar?

And, most importantly: Haveyou ever beenconfused about the Present Perfect Tense? If you

have, now is the perfect moment to clear things up!

Before we start, pay attention to the tense used above the Present Perfect itself!

ow, have a loo" at the enthusiastic scientist who is wor"ing hard in his laboratory# $hat do you

thin" he is doing? $ell, a very important thing, obviously# %e is ma"ing things easier for you,

mi&ing two ingredients the present tense and the past tense, forming a completely new blend

the PRESENT PERFECT TENSE! Try to memori'e the picture, since it is actually the basis ofthe Present Perfect, which represents a mi&ture of the past and the present( And not only that#

I)et us start from the first branch on the right, that is, the navy blue one# It e&plains the positive

form of the tense used in a sentence# Imagine that the train is an *nglish sentence# As you cansee, every *nglish sentence must start with a sub+ect of course, there are always e&ceptions to

the rule-, so the sub+ect in the locomotive here waves to us, showing his rightful place in the

world of rules# The ne&t part of a sentence is reserved for the predicate# %ere, the predicate

consists of two compartments the au&iliary have.has- and the main verb past participle form-#

otice:

has is used only for the third person singular he, she, it-

past participle

/ if the verb is irregular, past participleis the third columnof irregular verbs

/ if the verb is regular, suffi&ed is added to the infinitive#

*&ample: The train has +ust arrived#

http://www.grammarmindmaps.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/Mind_Map_Present_Perfect.jpg

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ote: In the sentence above justis an adverb, meaning 0a short time ago1 and it is typically

used between the au&iliary and the main verb-#

IIow that we have learned the positive form, let2s proceed to e&plain the green branch,pertaining to the negative form# Basically, it is very simple# 3or negative form, au&iliaries have

not. has not haven!t.hasn!t- are used, and again, followed by the main verb in the pastparticiple form#

III The red branch e&plains the 4uestion form# The locomotive, which comes first, stands for the

"h#4uestion word what, where, how, which, when(-# It is optional in brac"ets- because a

4uestion need not always begin with a 4uestion word# If you want to ma"e a 4uestion in the

Present Perfect Tense, use the au&iliary have.has, then place the sub+ect and then the main verb,again in the past participle# to sum up: use inversion to ma$e %uestions-

I&And now, the most confusing part the red branch- when to use the Present Perfect Tense?

The good news is it is not confusing at all if you +ust evo"e to your mind the picture of the

scientist mi&ing the present and the past! 5o, again, the Present Perfect is al"a's some $ind ofmi(ture of the past and the present!

As you can see, the first use outlined stands for an action "hich started in the past and

is still going on in the present # It is a rather simple rule, but many students find itambiguous since they don2t have such a tense in their language# 5o, let us illustrate the

rule with an e&ample:

/ 5he has wor"ed as a teacher for five years# 5he started wor"ing as a teacher five years

ago and is still wor"ing as a teacher#-

5econdly, use the Present Perfect Tense for an unspecified action "hich happened

before no"# $hat does it mean? It means that we +ust state what has happened, without

mentioning when it happened we do not "now when it happened, or, simply, it is not

important-#

*&ample: I have planteda tree#

ote: if we state "hensomething happened, then the Past 5imple Tense should be used#

*&ample: I planteda tree 'esterda'#

Thirdly, whenever we tal" about life e(periences, we should use the Present Perfect

Tense#

*&amples:

/ 5he has beento )ondon twice#

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/ Haveyou ever riddena horse?

3urther on, use the Present Perfect when you tal" about present resultsan action in the

past has a result now-# As you can see in the picture, there is a small "ey drawn,suggesting the following e&ample: I have lostmy "ey the result: ow I cannot enter my

apartment-# 6r: 5he has bro$enher leg# ow she cannot wal"-# The following branch says that you should use the Present Perfect Tense when you state

ne" information# And, if you haven2t noticed so far, pay attention to how much thePresent Perfect is used in the news!

*&amples: /ova" 7+o"ovic has not lostin 89 matches in a row#

-Therehave been ; ma+or earthquakesin #

$hen it comes to adverbs, try to memori'e which adverbs go with which tense, because

it will simplify things to a great e&tent# If you have been preparing for a test in *nglish,

remember that these adverbs re4uire the Present Perfect tense: ever,never, since, for,alread',)ust,'et,recentl',latel',so far,up to no"(

*&amples:

/ %ave you everbeen to the @5A?

/ 5he has neverflown by plane#

/ ohn has wor"ed as an engineersince9>#

/ aria has lived in Italy forten years#

/ i"e has alread'done his homewor"#

/ They have)ustleft#

/ %aven2t you got ready 'et?

/ I haven2t seen 7iane recentl'#

/ 5he hasn2t slept much latel'#

/ ane has seen that movie several times so far#

/ I have wor"ed very hard up to no"#

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