Hello. My name is Emma, and in today's video, I am going to teach you about the
present perfect, and how we use it for when we talk about past experiences.
Now, I know a lot of you probably have learned a little bit about the present
perfect before, And maybe you thought it was really boring or really difficult.
But I promise you: Today's lesson is going to be very interesting, because we
are going to play a game. Okay? A game that will help you learn the present
perfect. So, let's get started. So, the game is called: "Two Truths, and a Lie".
So, just to remember: A "truth" is something that is true and happened.
Okay? So, something that is true and happened. A "lie" is something that did
not happen. So, how do we play this game? Well, I am going to tell you two
things that are true about me, and one thing that is a lie. And your job is you
need to guess: "What is the truth? And what is the lie?" And we are going to do
this by using the grammar — the present perfect. Okay? So, let's get started.
I'm going to tell you my first sentence, and I want you to think about it, and
guess: Is it true or is it a lie? "I have walked 800 kilometers across
Spain." That's a lot of walking. Look at my second... my second statement: "I
have lived in China." All right. And what about the third? "I have seen a
ghost." So, these three sentences, two of them are true and one of them is not
true; one of them is a lie. But before we figure out which is true and which is
the lie, I want to ask you a couple questions about the present perfect. So,
these sentences are all in the present perfect. When we're using the present
perfect to talk about experience... Are these talking about the past; are they
talking about right now, the present; or are they talking about the future? So,
these sentences or the present perfect, when we're talking about experience —
it's used to talk about something that happened in the past. And this is really
confusing for students, because they see the word: "present", so they think that
it always is talking about right now. But when we're talking about the
"present perfect", we're actually talking about something that happened in
the past. Confusing, I know. But the main thing to know is that when you're
talking about experiences in the past, you can use the present perfect. Okay?
And I will go over how to use the present perfect in a moment, how it
looks like, and all that information. But for now, just to understand the idea
of the present perfect is what I want. So, we use the present perfect when
we're talking about a past experience.
Now, do we need to know when that past experience happened? Do we need a
specific date — like: "July 21st, 1987", or "yesterday", or "last year" — or is
the date not really important? We don't really have a date; we don't know when
it happened. It was sometime before. So, when we use the present perfect, we do
not have a specific date. No date. Okay? So, I have these three sentences — you
know they happen in the past, you know they happen before, but you don't know
when, and the when part isn't really so important. What's important is I want to
tell you about a past experience. So, you know... notice there's no dates
here. It doesn't say: "yesterday", "last week" — it doesn't have any of that time
information. Okay? So, we have it's talking about the past; there's no
specific date. Together, if we want to put these together, we can use the
present perfect tense. So, now what we're going to do... I know you're
really excited to find out what's true and what's false, but before we do that,
I'm going to tell you about the structure of the present perfect, how we
make it, and then we will have the big reveal where you will find out which is
Okay. So, how do we make a present perfect sentence when we're talking
about experience... experiences of the past, specifically? Well, let's look.
Okay? So, the first thing you need is your subject. A "subject" are words
like: "I", "You", "He", "She", "It", "They"; it can also be, you know, a
person's name, for example: "My sister, Audra", "My dog, Jackson". Okay? So,
these are all subjects. So, after you have your subject picked, in this case,
I have three subjects: "I", "I", and "I" — they're all the same subject; they're
about me. The next thing you need to make a present perfect sentence is the
word: "have" or "has". We call this the "helping verb" because it helps the main
verb. In this case: "I have", so the subject needs to match with "have" or
"has". "I have", "you have", "he" or "she" or "it has", so to match. And it
is not: "have"; it's: "has" and "they have". Okay? So, again, you have your
subject, you have the words: "have" or "has". Or if you want it to be a
negative sentence about something you didn't do, you can use: "have not" or
"has not". Okay? Those are possible.
And after you have these two parts, the third part is called the past
participle. Okay? That's a really scary-sounding word, I think. It sounds
really grammary and very confusing, but it's not. The "past participle" is a
verb in a specific form. There are two types of forms of the past participle.
You can have regular past participle words, so, for example: "play"; the past
participle of the word "play" is "played", where you add an "ed". Another
example of a regular past participle is you have the word: "travel". Now, if you
want the past participle of the word "travel", again, you add "ed". We call
this "regular" because it has a specific rule: You add "ed" to make it the past
participle form. If we look over here, in my three sentences: "I have walked".
This is an example of a regular past participle. The verb is the word "walk",
and I've added "ed" to make it a past participle. My second sentence is also
an example of this: "I have lived". So, I've taken the verb "live", and I've
just added "ed" to make it "lived". So, that's... those are both examples of
Now, English can be a confusing language, and that's because we have so
many exceptions to the rules. For past participles, we call these exceptions,
"irregular", because they're not the norm. So, some examples of irregular
past participles are words like: "eaten", so this is the past participle
of "eat". So, in the present, we say: "eat"; in the past, we say: "ate"; and
with the past participle we say: "eaten". Okay? Or same with the word:
"make". "Make", we say: "make" in the present, "made" in the past, and the
past participle of "make" is "made". It's the same with the word "see"; the
past participle of "see" is "seen"; or "do", the past participle is "done". Or
"drink" — I "drink" water, I "drank" water, "I have drunk water". So, "drunk"
is the past participle. So, how do you learn the past participles? If they're
not irregular... Or, sorry. If they are not regular, then a lot of the times you
just have to memorize them. Okay? And you'll start noticing some patterns. But
the best advice I can give you is: Think about the words you use a lot, and start
there. So, if you like to talk about food, and experiences with food,
memorizing the word "eaten" is probably a good idea for you. Okay? So, start
Okay. So, if we look at my example, up here, we have an example of an irregular
past participle: "I have seen a ghost." All right. So, this is how you create
the form of a present perfect sentence. So, you have the subject, you have
"have" or "has", and you have the verb, and then you have the rest of the
information. But the main thing we're focusing on is this part. Okay. So,
we've talked a lot about the present perfect, we've talked about when we use
it to talk about past experiences. There are other times we use it. But in this
lesson, we're only focusing on talking about past experiences. We've talked
about the form of the present perfect, and now we are going to do the big
reveal. We're going to find out what is true and what is false. Okay? What are
my two truths, and what is my lie? "I have walked 800 kilometers across
Spain." What do you think? This is true. I can say: "I have walked 800 kilometers
across Spain." Very crazy, I know. It took 33 days; a very long time. Another
thing I can do is I can, instead of saying: "I have walked", I can change
this to: "I've walked". It means the exact same thing. The only difference is
this is... We can shorten "have" to "I've", instead of "I have". So, you
have a choice. But this is true. What about number two? "I have lived in
China" or "I've lived in China." Is this true or false? Is this the truth or a
lie? This is true. I spent one year living in China. True. So, what is my
lie, then? "I have seen a ghost." So, no, I have not. I have not seen a ghost.
But my brother, my older brother, when he was 25 years old, he saw a ghost. So,
my brother has seen a ghost, or at least he believes he has.
So, there you have it, you found out what's true, what's a lie, and you've
learned about the present perfect. So, like I said, the present perfect can be
fun. And it's something I really want you to practice because we use it all
the time in English. And a lot of you have interesting stories or interesting
lives. So, here is your homework: In the comment section, what I want you to do
is I want you to write three sentences. I want you to write two sentences that
are true about yourself, using the present perfect. Okay? So, two sentences
about a past experience that is true. And then I want you to write one
sentence about a past experience that is not true; it's a lie. Okay? And I want
you to interact with each other. You can guess: What sentences of people are true
and which ones are not true? But the main thing is: When you do this in the
comments, it's very important you're talking about a past experience, and
you're using the present perfect. Okay? So, thank you so much for watching. I
hope you have enjoyed today's lesson. I invite you to check out our quiz at
www.engvid.com. There, you can actually practice everything we've learned. Even
before you write in the comments, maybe you want to practice the form of the
present perfect. Our quiz is a great way to do that. I also would like to invite
you to subscribe to my channel. There, you will find a whole bunch of different
resources on English across all different topics, including vocabulary,
writing, reading, studying, and many more. So, thank you for watching; and