Lesson M Main?

Lesson M - Present Perfect



Did you know....?
Our minds live in more than one time.
        Yes...
We think about what we are doing now.
I am buying (V1+ING) a car.
...And what we will do next week.
I will buy a boat (will + V1) next week.
...And what we did last week.
I bought (V2) a car last week.
Now there is one more form of the verb (V3). It is now, but it is the result of something you did before:
I have bought (HAVE + V3) a car.

Whoa...Is that Past or Present? You have that car NOW. So it is Present. But you bought it BEFORE now. 

But why is that verb "bought" (V3) -- the same as "bought (V2)?
There are 3 time forms of the verb.  Sometimes the same word fills more than one. Why? These verbs came from many different countries, a long time ago. Some came with simple rules for changing them. I love (V1)Mary.  I loved (V2) Mary. I have loved (V3) Mary.   The last form, V3, is called a Past Participle, but it is used in the Present Perfect tense because it shows the final Result of the action. Verbs like love (V1) loved (V2)  have loved (V3) are regular verbs. As we said in the last lesson, Regular verbs change the same way every time. There are always good rules for changing Regular verbs.

So, are there not good rules for Irregular Verbs?

Well there is just one rule. Know each Irregular Verb by itself. The good news is that there are not very many of them. And they are very useful. They are some of the most common verbs:
sing (V1) sang (V2) sung (V3)
ring (V1) rang (V2) rung (V3)
drink (V1) drank  (V2) drunk (V3)
sink (V1) sank (V2) sunk (V3)
get   (V1) got   (V2) gotten (V3)
go    (V1) went (V2) gone (V3)

That's not too bad. But it gets a little worse...Sometimes the Irregular verbs don't change between (V2) and (V3). So that is why we have:
buy (V1) bought (V2) bought (V3)

That is why the only rule for irregular verbs is: Know every one by itself.

(Be sure and study the list of Irregular Verbs in Lessons Main. OK?)

So anyway, when we use this V3, or Past Participle form of the verb with the Present, we have a Result that is now, called Present Perfect tense. So when we say: "I have sung that song." we are in the Present talking about something we finished in the Past.

Have you become ready for the Present Perfect?



Present Perfect: It is a tense. We use this tense when we want to speak about the present result of an action that happened in the past. (Up)

Past Participle: Another word forV3.   (Up)