Activity 9.4.3 – Written Exercises
Grammar Focus
We have already earned how the Present Perfect is used for something that started in the past and continues in the present, for personal experiences, for something you have already done, or haven’t done yet, for breaking news, and for actions or situations that started in the past but whose results are seen or are important in the present.
In this lesson, we will learn one of the most common usages: for unfinished periods of time, usually used with expressions such as today, this month, this year.
Important: if you use a finished time expression (yesterday, last week, etc.), use the simple past.
Check out these examples:
- I have written 3 emails today (the day isn’t over; I might write more).
- She has gone to the United States 4 times this year (the year hasn’t ended; she might go again).
- "Goodness, it’s 9:30 a.m. I haven’t had breakfast yet." (The period when people usually have breakfast isn’t over; the speaker still has time to have breakfast. However, at 12:30, they will say, "I didn’t have breakfast today.")
When using the present perfect, both ‘been’ and ‘gone’ are used as the past participle of ‘go’, but for different situations.
‘Been’ is used for life experiences: "He has been to Israel" (but he is in Brazil now, where he lives).
‘Gone’ is used for breaking or recent news: "He has gone to Israel" (he is in Israel now).
