Present perfect and past perfect
Present perfect simple
for/sinceb1
Present perfect simple with for and since
Grammar contents
- She has lived here for over 30 years.
- I haven't played tennis since my accident.
- I've known Maya since I was twelve.
- ‘How long has she lived here?’ ‘For over 30 years./Since 1988.’
We can use the present perfect with for and a period of time.
We can use the present perfect with since and a date, day, time or event.
| Positive and negative | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subject | auxiliary | past participle | for/since | |||
| + | She | has | lived | here | for | over 30 years. |
| since | 1988. | |||||
| - | I | haven't | played | tennis | for | a week. |
| since |
|
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We can form present perfect questions with How long …?
| Questions | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| How long | auxiliary | subject | past participle | ||
| ? | How long | have | you | known | Maya? |
| has | she | lived | here? | ||
We can give a short answer with for or since.
- ‘How long have you known Maya?’ ‘For six years./Since I was twelve.’
- ‘How long has she lived here?’ ‘For over 30 years./Since 1988.’
Regular verbs have past participles which are the same as their past simple forms, ending -ed.
- visit → visited arrive → arrived
Irregular verbs have irregular past participles. Sometimes the past participle of an irregular verb is the same as the past simple form and sometimes it is different.
- have, had → had lose, lost → lost
- do, did → done eat, ate → eaten
We use the present perfect to talk about present activities that started in the past.
We use for to talk about the period of time up to the present, e.g. for four years, for two days.
- The company has been in business for four years.
We use since to talk about the time when an activity started. This can be a date, a day, a month, a time or an event, e.g. since 1903, since yesterday, since May, since 8 a.m., since my birthday, since I was ten years old.
- I've been here since 8 a.m.
- I haven't seen you since the wedding.
We often use the past simple after since.
- She's had that car since she started learning to drive.
We use the question form How long …? to ask about the period of time an activity has continued for. We can reply with for + the period of time …
- ‘How long have you known Maya?’ ‘For six years.’
… or we can reply with since + the time when the activity started.
- ‘How long have you known Maya?’ ‘Since I was twelve.’
Grammar contentsView all
Present perfect and past perfect
Quantifiers, possessives and demonstratives