Perfect Tenses

1. Perfect Tenses

2. English has 6 tenses: present present perfect I eat. I have eaten. past past perfect I ate. I had eaten. future future perfect I will eat. I will have eaten.

3. Note that all the perfect tenses include have, has, or had. present present perfect I eat. I have eaten. past past perfect I ate. I had eaten. future future perfect I will eat. I will have eaten. If it doesn’t include have, has, or had, it isn’t a perfect tense.

4. Note: You need to be sure to distinguish between “have (has, had)” as a main verb & as a helping verb that is part of the perfect tense: I have $5.00. I havedone my homework. They had 2 children. I had already eaten. He has a dog. He hasbought a dog. You will have 2 days. You will havefinished the book.

5. “Perfect” means complete. All perfect tenses are past tenses. Present perfect is complete up to the present moment: I have lived here for 10 years. This means my living here began in the past, & 10 years are complete at this point, but the living here isn’t. Past perfect is the past of the past: He did well on the test because he had studied. “Did” is in the past; before that, the studying occurred. So “had studied” is the past of the past verb “did.” Future perfect is the past of the future. I will have read the entire book by tomorrow. “Tomorrow” is the future point; the reading isn’t complete now, but it will be complete before the future point.

6. Tense timeline: past perfect past present future perfect future pres. perf. This shows what was presented on the previous slide. The past perfect is the past of the past. The future perfect is the past of the future. The past & present perfect work in the same time frame; the way you view the action determines which of the two you need: I haven’t eaten breakfast. – This suggests that you may eat breakfast, that the not eating is complete to this point but may change. I didn’t eat breakfast. – There’s no chance now that you’re going to eat breakfast.

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