Real English series: More on the present perfect

In our Real English series we are showing three more videos to exemplify the use of the present perfect.

To be totally honest with you, the main benefit of the videos lies on the general revision of tenses and question forms learners are exposed to together with the listening practice, as very few of the questions in the street interviews or in the answers, for that matter, have to do with the present perfect.

The difficulty of the videos is higher than usual, so this week's videos are more suitable for intermediate students. Strong Básico 2 students will also be able to benefit from them if they read the subtitles.

In the first video, a really nice guy answers questions about his job -he is a messenger. At one stage he answers the question How long have you been a messenger for?, which shows the second use of the present perfect that we studied last week, present perfect to talk about a situation which started in the past and continues up to the present.

You can do an interactive exercise on the Real English site here.
You can watch the same video with English subtitles on the Real English site here.

In the second video Michael, a policeman in New York, answers some questions about his life. The two questions in blue refer to the use of the present perfect to talk about experiences. The question in red refers to the use of the present perfect to talk about situations which started in the past and continue up to now.
What's your name?
What do you like doing in your free time?
What did you do yesterday?
Apart from New York, what other towns have you lived in?
When did you live in Hamburg?
Where were you born?
Was that a long time ago?
What's been the best year of your life?
What have you been doing in the city today?
Were you good at school?
What's the most beautiful city in the USA?
Which is bigger New York or San Francisco?
Which is the most beautiful language?
What would you do if you won 10 million dollars?
What do you hope to achieve before you die?
What are you going to do tonight?



In the third video, once again we can see the difference of usage of the present perfect to talk about activities or situations that started in the past and continue up to now (first interviewee, the juggler, who answers the question How long have you been juggling today?) and to talk about experiences (second interviewee, who answers the questions Have you travelled abroad?, Where have you been?).

However, you shouldn't miss the third interview, where Minda shows her bubbly personality and extroverted manner. In addition, she answers a battery of questions we have been studying in our Real English series and that you can also use to revise all the grammar we have been studying throughout the series.

What is your name?

Would you spell that for me?
What are you doing right now?
Where do you live?
Where do you work?
How long does it take you to get to work?
How do you get to work?
When were you born?
What have you been doing in the city today?
Have you been to Europe?
What are you going to do tonight?
What are you going to do on your next holiday?
What do you like to do for fun?
Can you play any musical instruments?
What time is it?
What’s the weather like today?

The use of the present perfect in English

In early July Tanya Trusler published an entry on the ESL Library blog about the use of the present perfect in English.

She talks about the two main uses of the present perfect, the difference between present perfect and past simple, and the difference between present perfect simple and continuous.

It is a simple, straightforward explanation, but one of the best I have read about a difficult grammar point for many English learners.

How are you feeling? How does he look?

This idea for this activity comes from a blog post from ESLChestnut.

A few verbs in English can be followed by adjective. The verb everybody knows is to be:
I'm hungry
They are old

But there are a few more. They mainly have to do with the senses: taste, sound, look, feel, smell or with our impression of something/someone: seem, appear, look, consider.
The fish tastes funny
It feels a bit rough
It smells nice
She seems (to be) a bit arrogant
They look worried

Self-study activity:
You can practise this structure with the picture below. The activity is a bit mechanical, but it will help you to learn and/or consolidate the idea that a few verbs are followed by adjective.

If possible, get together with an English-speaking friend or relative and take it in turn to ask each other the same question:
How does no 1 in the first line look?
He looks exhausted

How is no 2 in the second line feeling?
He's feeling hysterial

You can also practise the present perfect continuous by giving reasons for each person's state.
Why?
Because he's been playing football for two hours.

These mood-related adjectives are also suitable to practise and revise the pronounciation of the -ed endings in English.

To revise the way -ed is pronounced in English, click on the Regular Verbs tag on the right hand side.