Learn English Tenses: PRESENT PERFECT with Unfinished Time

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"Hey, have you seen Jim today?"

"No, I haven't seen Jim today."

Have you sent that email that I asked you to send?"

I haven't sent it yet, but I will send it soon."

"Okay, I really need it soon."

"Yeah, okay, don't worry.

You will have it very, very soon."

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What do you think about this topic?

So today, we are talking about the present perfect for unfinished time.

You might know that you can use the present

perfect to talk about life experience, things

that have happened in your life.

So, for example, I have visited Niagara Falls at least 20 times in my life.

I have been there many times.

Something I have never eaten.

I have never eaten monkey brains?

Yeah, I have never eaten monkey brains.

I can't think of something else.

So, you might be watching this video, and you might be asking, "What's the difference

between the past simple and the present perfect?

What is this idea of unfinished time?"

To begin, let's review, and let's remind ourselves

that the past simple is something you did.

It's finished at a specific time in the past.

Right? So, this is a finished action.

So, I ate breakfast this morning.

It's not the morning anymore, but this morning I ate breakfast.

I watched a movie with my sister yesterday.

It's finished, for example.

And next, we have the present perfect, which

is something you have done, usually at an

unspecified time, any time before now.

Now, I have only put the affirmative, so something

you have done or you haven't done before now

that has a connection to the present.

So, to give you more of a review of the present

perfect, the present perfect connects the

past to the present, from then until now.

So, if we look at this picture of a timeline

here, we have the present, we have the past,

and here we have a connection from the past to the present.

Now, this is especially important when we are talking about unfinished time, from a

time in the past until now.

So, you might be wondering, "Wait, this morning,

today, this afternoon, okay, it sounds like

I need to use the present simple or maybe the

future to talk about some of these things,

You can say "this week", "this month", "this year".

Now, what if, let's say this week, what if this week is not finished yet?

What if today is Wednesday?

And I have a question for you, and this is a serious question for all of you.

Have you called your mom this week?

And imagine it's the middle of the week.

Of course, you can say, "Well, not yet, I

will call her, but from the start of the week

until now, from the past until now, I haven't called her."

Or "Yeah, oh, I don't know why I said 'them'

here, my mom called her, originally I said

your parents, now I remember, I called her yesterday."

So, yeah, I called her yesterday.

And you notice here, what tense did I use?

The past simple, that's right, yeah, I called her yesterday.

This is a specific time in the past, it's finished, I called her.

You can also say, "Hey, have you called your mom this week?"

Or "Yeah, I have, I have called her, so thank you for asking."

So, again, this week, it started in the past,

it's still in the middle of the week, we are

talking about unfinished time, the week is

not finished, have you called her this week?

Next, "Have you seen Steve today?"

Like, it's still today, I haven't seen Steve

since the morning, I didn't see him this morning,

I haven't seen him this afternoon, and the day is not finished, maybe I will see him

So, I can ask you, "Have you seen Steve today?"

It's like, "No, I haven't seen Steve, I have

been here all day, I haven't seen Steve in

a very long time."

Do you remember Steve?

I remember Steve.

Where are you, Steve?

I haven't seen you in a long time.

I haven't seen you in a long time, from the past until now.

Wow, what a connection.

"Have you had breakfast yet?"

When would I ask this?

So, "yet" is very common with unfinished time.

"Yet" means any time before now.

So, when do you have breakfast?

In the morning, afternoon, or evening?

In the morning.

So, you probably would ask this question at,

like, 9 o'clock, 10 o'clock, maybe 8 o'clock,

it depends on your wake-up time, what time you normally have breakfast.

And maybe your roommate, maybe your sister or your brother, maybe your mom or your dad

asks you this question, "Hey, have you had breakfast yet?"

It's like saying, you know, "Did you eat?" or "Have you eaten?"

And if you're wondering, "Wait, Alex, can I say, 'Did you eat?'"

You can say, "Hey, did you eat?"

This is also a difference between British English and American English.

A lot of Americans prefer using the past simple,

even with "yet", like, "Did you eat yet?"

for example, versus a lot of British speakers

who will prefer to say, "Have you eaten yet?"

Really, connecting the past to the present with "yet", present perfect is considered

more grammatically correct, but if you say the simple past in here, it's not the end

So, "Yes, I have.

Yes, I've already eaten.

I have eaten before now."

Or "No, I haven't eaten yet."

"Oh, let's go out for breakfast," in this case.

So, this is a question for you.

"Have you eaten today?"

Now, I say, "Have you eaten today?" because "today" is not finished.

Your "today" is always happening.

We're always living in the present.

This is very philosophical.

And you can say, "No, I haven't eaten today."

Or "Yes, I have eaten today."

And then I can ask you a follow-up question, "Oh, what did you eat?"

Because now I know, you ate, right?

You have eaten today, so it's finished.

You ate earlier.

What did you eat?

Oh, I had or I ate something.

This is the same, similar to Steve, right?

Have you seen Steve today?

"Hey, do you know where Tina is?

It's like, "I'm sorry, I haven't seen her."

"From the start of the morning until now, I haven't seen Tina."

So this is a work situation.

"Sorry, I haven't seen her.

Maybe I will see her later.

And here, here we just have a sentence, "He hasn't answered any of my calls."

So I have called him several times.

When you do something multiple times, you

try calling a person multiple times, you send

multiple emails, and you say, "From the past,

when I started calling him until now, he hasn't

answered any of my calls.

Maybe he will answer your calls in the future,

but from the past until now, he hasn't answered

any of my calls."

Okay, let's make this a little interactive.

Repeat after me, "He hasn't answered any of my calls."

It's a sad situation, I know.

Okay, so let's continue with some more

examples so you can really internalize this.

You can really absorb it, make it part of you,

and we'll give you some very common questions

and common sentences that use the present perfect with unfinished time.

So these are three common phrases that you can use with the present perfect when you

are talking about unfinished time, again, from the past until now.

So one of those phrases is, "How long?"

So for example, "Oh, how long have you been married?"

So, you and Jacinta, or you and somebody else, "How long have you been married?"

"Oh, we have been married for 15 years or since 2009."

As a reminder, we use "for" plus a duration of time, "for 6 hours", "for 2 days", "for

7 weeks", and we use "since" to talk about

a specific past period, "since 2009", "since

last week", "since my birthday", "since I was in university", for example.

So, you can use "we have been", you know,

"since 2009", "from the past until now", "How

long have you been married?", "How long have you been here?"

You can also use the, in this case, you can use the present perfect continuous to also

talk about unfinished time, like, "Hey, how long have you been waiting here?"

So, "Oh, we have been waiting for 6 hours."

If you're in an emergency room in a hospital,

that's actually quite possible depending on

So, yeah, "How long?", "How long have you

been doing this?", "From the past until now."

Next, "so far".

So, "so far" just means "from the past until now".

If I ask you, "What have you done today?"

So, if I'm your boss and I, you know, you're a

worker and I say, "What have you done today?"

You can say, "Well, so far, the day is not

finished, but from the time I started my shift

at work until now, so far, I've met with 5 clients and I've sent a bunch of emails."

So, you notice here, "So far, I have met",

"I've met with 5 clients and I've sent a bunch

So, repeat after me, "I've met with 5 clients", "I've sent a bunch of emails."

And, yeah, "What have you done today, so far?"

So, again, the day is not finished, but you can say, "So far, I have done x, y, z.

I have had breakfast, I have put gas in my

car, I have called my sister, and I have made

a few videos", for example.

Okay, so let's keep going, and then we have

"all", like, "all day", "all afternoon", "all

For example, "We have been here all day."

Okay, so the day is not finished, but from the time the day started until now, we have

We have been here all day.

You wouldn't say, "We were here all day."

That's the simple past, and it wouldn't work

in this situation unless, like, you were here

all day yesterday, for example.

But, if the day is not finished and you are tired of waiting, like, "We have been here

And finally, "She has been in her room all morning", so maybe she is sick.

Maybe she is in bed because she is sick, so you say, "Okay, well, all morning."

The morning is not finished yet.

Maybe it's 11 o'clock, 11.30, but since the

start of the morning until now, she has been

And again, in this case, you can't say, "She

was in her room all morning", or "She is in

her room all morning", or "She is being in her room all morning".

It doesn't work.

The only thing you can use in this case to

mean "from the past until now" is the present

The time is not finished.

It started in the past, continuing now.

So, "She has been in her room all morning.

I hope she feels better soon."

Okay, so that is how we use the present perfect with unfinished time.

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