Questions in the present perfect simple. Constructing questions in Present Perfect Tense

A good understanding of the topic of the Present Perfect is provided by visual examples of interrogative sentences in this tense.

How to ask a question in the Present Perfect - examples with translation

Have you ever eaten frog? Have you ever eaten frogs?
Have you ever eaten snails? Have you ever eaten snails?
Have they ever eaten snake? Have they ever eaten a snake?

How long have they been living together? How long have they been living together?
Have you discussed this with your parents? Have you discussed this with your parents?

Have you thought about your future? Have you thought about your future?
Have you thought of moving to Canada? Have you thought about moving to Canada?

Have you considered looking for a new job? Have you thought about looking for a new job?
Have you been to the US before? Have you ever been to the USA?

Has anyone seen Alex? Has anyone seen Alex?
Has anyone seen my keys? Has anyone seen my keys?

Have we met before? Have we met before?
Have you talked to your mom recently? Have you talked to your mom?

Have you finished watching ‘Game of Thrones’ yet? Have you finished watching Game of Thrones?
Have you started your project? Have you started your project?

How have you been? I've been busy. I've been good.
What have you done? What did you do?

Why has no one told me this before? Why didn't anyone tell me about this?
You’ve never ridden a motorcycle? Have you ever ridden a motorcycle?

Have you seen my phone? I left it in the bathroom. Have you seen it?
Have you seen my phone? I left it in the bathroom. Saw?

Has he taken out the trash? Have you taken out the trash?
Which countries have you been to? What countries have you been to?

Have you ever seen the movie Titanic? Have you seen Titanic?
Have you ever seen the TV series, “Doctor House”? Have you seen the TV series "Doctor House"?

Have you ever broken a bone? Have you ever had a broken bone?
Have you ever seen a ghost? Have you ever seen a ghost?

Have you seen this movie? Have you seen this movie?
Have you washed your car? Have you washed your car?

Have you done the shopping? Have you bought everything?
Have you lost your bag? Have you lost your bag?

Have they stolen my car? Did they steal my car?
Have you ever imagined a future with me? Have you ever thought about a future with me?

Have you ever climbed a mountain? Have you ever climbed a mountain?
Has he passed his driving test? Did he pass his driving test?

Have you ever received a speeding ticket?
Have you ever been given a speeding ticket?

Present Perfect Tense is formed using the auxiliary verb to have in Present Indefinite (present tense) and past participles the main verb (Past Participle is the III form or verb).

Interrogative form The Present Perfect is formed by rearranging the auxiliary verb have before the subject, and the Past Participle of the main verb after the subject.

IN negative form particle -not is placed after the auxiliary verb and in colloquial speech usually merges with it.

Number	Face	Affirmative	Negative	Interrogative
			I have not studied
		She/He/it has studied	She/He/it has not been studied	Has she/he/it studied?
			We have not studied	Have we studied?
		You have studied	You have not studied	Have you studied?
		They have studied	They have not studied	Have they studied?

Meaning of the Present Perfect Tense (PresentPerfect)

The Present Perfect tense is actually not the present at all - it is the past tense (there are exceptions, so-called stative verbs). Almost all verbs in this tense are actions completed in the past. This tense indicates the connection of an action that happened in the past with the present or, in another way, with the moment of speech. When using this time, the time of its completion is not important, the most important thing is the result.

Present Perfect is translated into Russian as the past tense of the verb of the perfect form or, in some cases, the imperfect form (this depends on the meaning of the sentence).

I have seen that show - I saw this show

Stop that car! They have killed a policeman– Stop that car! They killed a policeman

Maria has lived in Paris since 2001 – Maria lives in Paris in 2001.

Use

So, Present Perfect is used to express an action or state that began in the past and already completed by the time of speech, if it is necessary to emphasize that the result of what happened matters in the moment.

A: Are you going to the film tonight? – Are you going to the cinema this evening?

B:No. I have already seen it. – No I've already seen it

(In this example, the responder uses the Present Perfect to indicate the result that he saw this film, and it doesn’t matter when! Only the result is important)

A: Have you seen of Maria? -Have you seen Maria?

B: Yes. She helps her mother to cook dinner – Yes. She helps her mom prepare dinner

(In this example, the question - Have you seen Mary? - refers to the past, but is connected with the present, since it means - Where is she now?)

1) The Present Perfect is used to express not only one-time actions, but also actions that are repeated several times.

I have seen this movie twice – I watched this movie twice

We have been in Paris three times - we have been to Paris 3 times

2) Very often the Present Perfect is used without indicating the time of the action. This is due, first of all, to the fact that the speaker does not focus on the time of the action; the result is important to him.

Hello Mark! Am you going to go to a concert? – Mark, are you going to go to the concert?

Unfortunately, I can’t because my car has broken – Unfortunately I can't because my car broke down.

3) in sentences with adverbs or adverbial phrases of indefinite tense already, ever, never, yet, often, always, rarely, rarely, several times

I have never been in America – I've never been to America

They have already written us - They have already written to us

4) in sentences with adverbial words and adverbs of a certain time. It is used when the period that the speaker means has not yet ended at the time of speech: today, this morning, this week, all day, just: (meaning a certain part of the day, week, month)

John has worked hard all day today. – John worked hard all day today

I haven't seen her today – I haven't seen her today

5) in sentences with time adverbials indicating the period during which the action occurred or could have occurred, starting from some point in the past tense and up to the present time: lately, for a long time, how long, so far, up to now, up to the present, for the past two hours (days, months, years), for three hours (days, months, years), etc.,

with circumstances indicating only the beginning of such a period(usually with the conjunction since- since, since then, ever since):

We haven't met since January, have we? - We haven't met since January, right?

So much has happened since I saw you last. - So much has happened since I last saw you

Important!!

He left Moscow yesterday - He left Moscow yesterday.

In questions beginning with an adverb when(when, always) Past Indefinite is used, and not Present Perfect, since the question is asked about the past:

When did Sasha come? - When did Sasha arrive?

6) Present Perfect is used instead of Present Perfect Continuous with verbs that are not used in tenses of the Continuous group. In this case, the Present Perfect is translated into Russian using the present tense:

Present Perfect is also used with some verbs along with Present Perfect Continuous:

She has lived in Boston for three years – She has lived in Boston for 3 years (= She has been living in Boston for three years)

7) Present Perfect is used to express a perfect future action (instead of Future Perfect) in adverbial clauses of time and condition, which are introduced by conjunctions: after, when, as soon as, until (til l), if, etc. In this case, Present Perfect is translated into Russian by the future tense of the perfect verb:

After I have written this article, I shall read it to you - After I write this article, I will read it to you.

Important!

As we wrap up our study of the Present Perfect, we'll look at some examples of the use of this tense below:

Using the Present perfect you can talk about your experience:

I have seen the statue of liberty – I saw the Statue of Liberty.

(The meaning of the sentence is that you had an experience, you saw the Statue of Liberty, and time does not matter, maybe you saw it once, or maybe several times, but the result is important to US)

I have seen the statue of liberty two tines – I saw the statue of liberty twice

(Using Present Perfect can you add how many times have you seen the statue of liberty)

Using this tense, on the contrary, you can say that you have never had experience in something:

I have never seen the statue of liberty – I've never seen the statue of liberty

Very often the Present Perfect is used to talk about changes over a period of time:

She has become more reserved since the last time i met her - She's become more reserved since I met her.

My wife has changed since she got a new job – my wife has changed since she got a new job

The Present Perfect can be used to talk about the achievement of a person or all of humanity:

Scientists have cloned a mouse – Scientists cloned a mouse

You can also use the Present Perfect to say that an action that we expected to happen did not happen. However, we still assume that the action will be performed:

Janna has still not arrived - Zhanna still hasn't arrived (but we're still waiting for her)

I haven'trepaired my car yet – I haven't fixed my car yet

We can also use this tense to talk about several different actions that happened in the past at different times. This means that we indicate an action or process that is not completed and some other actions are possible:

She has met with different employers but nobody recruited her – She met with different employers, but no one accepted her. (she had several interviews, maybe 2 or 4, it doesn’t matter)

I am sure that many people who study a language on their own reach the Present Perfect and... this is where their study ends, because according to the explanations from the textbook, not everyone can understand How is it? and Why is this? In this article I will not rewrite the rules, I will try to clearly and clearly explain what Present Perfect is.

First of all, let me remind you of the formation of this time.

We form the statement using the auxiliary verb have or has and the main verb in the third form, which in grammar is called Past Participle. If the verb is regular (regular), then the ending is added to it -ed, if the verb is irregular (irregular), then we take the third form from the third column of the table of irregular verbs. In this article I will denote Past Participle as V3:

In negation, a negative particle is added to the auxiliary verb not:

To form the interrogative form, the auxiliary verb is placed before the subject ( Subject):

Not all special questions can be asked in the Present Perfect. For example, a question with a word is impossible, so in the Present Perfect interlocutors are only interested in the result. If we are interested in time, then we need to use another grammatical construction to express actions in the past.

Using the Present Perfect

Present Perfect - present perfect tense. From the name it is clear that this tense denotes an action that was performed in the past, but is connected with the present. How is it connected to the present? How do we understand that it is connected?

From theory, you probably remember that this tense should be used when talking about the result of an action; if the action began in the past, but is still ongoing; and also if we talk about our life experiences; when the action took place in a period of time that has not yet ended... Surely you have already read about this many times in books or heard from a teacher.

I will try to explain to you step by step and clearly in what cases the Present Perfect is used in English. I will try to give situations from life that you encounter every day, and in which it is appropriate and even necessary to use Present Perfect. In this article I will give you small tasks, by completing which you will be able to see the importance of using this time. I would like to note that my explanation will be significantly different from those you read in grammar books.

What makes the Present Perfect different from other tenses? These are his markers (they are also called qualifiers, time indicators). Let us highlight the main markers of this time:

I'm going to tell you about each of them because each marker reflects the main points of time use.

1. Just (just now)

The tense indicator just is often used with Present Perfect and indicates that an action has just occurred and there is a certain visible and significant result.

In the statement, the place of just is after the auxiliary verb:

Just is not used in negatives. In general matters it is extremely rare.

Just is used in special questions with question words ( , Why, etc.) You may encounter questions like this with just :

What has just happened? - What just happened?

What has he just done/ said? - What did he just do/say?

What just happened? Someone just broke a cup.

When did this action take place? In the recent past, we don't know exactly when.

What do we know? We only know the result of an action. And we can say this in Present Perfect:

What did they just do? They have just cleaned the room.

We don't know the exact time, but we have a visible result - the room is clean.

They have just cleaned the room.

What did he just do? He just woke up.

The time of his awakening is unknown to us (although there is a clock in the photo), but we see the result: he is no longer sleeping.

He has just woken up.

What did you just do? You just read the explanation. The action is completed, there is a result: you learned about the word just.

You can say:

I have just read the explanation.

Exercise: Having performed some action and received a result, talk about its completion:

I have just had my breakfast.

You can look out the window and comment on what just happened there:

The tall man has just crossed the street. Two girls have just entered the shop.

2. Already/ yet (already; yet)

Present Perfect is used to describe an action that has already happened or has not yet happened. In these cases, we are invariably interested in the result, not in time. To make it clearer, let's look at an example from life.

Imagine that you come to a store with a shopping list.

Having already done some shopping, you stop to see what you have already purchased.

Let's consider different situations.

You read and translate complex text. You have only translated ten pages so far. You are still working with the text. You say:

I have translated ten pages so far. - I have translated ten pages so far.

Your friend is a writer. He writes novels. He has published one novel so far and continues to write. About him you will say:

He has published one novel so far. - He has published one novel so far.

The company you work for is expanding rapidly. At the moment, you have opened twenty new offices throughout the country and the company continues to grow:

Our company has opened twenty new offices so far. - Our company has opened twenty new offices at the moment.

All the actions described above took place in the past, but we evaluate their results at the moment while the action continues.

Question: How many paragraphs of this article have you read so far?

5. Never / ever (never / ever)

If you decide to indulge in memories and talk about your life experience, then without time Present Perfect you can't get by.

Do you love to travel? What countries have you visited?

I have been to France. - I was in France.

I have been to Italy. - I was in Italy.

I have been to Spain. - I was in Spain.

It doesn’t matter at all when you went to these countries, the main thing is that you visited there, got impressions, and can talk about it.

Which countries have you never been to? You can use negation or the word never to talk about it. The place of never in a sentence is after the auxiliary verb have/has:

I haven't been to India. - I have never been to India. - I've never been to India.

I haven’t been to China. - I have never been to China. - I have never been to China.

I haven't been to Japan. - I have never been to Japan. - I've never been to Japan.

If the word never is used, then the negative particle not is not needed because never itself has a negative meaning.

You want to ask questions to your interlocutor. Use the word ever:

Have you ever been to London? - Have you ever been in London?

I really hope that my explanation helped you understand the essence of the Present Perfect tense. Send your feedback

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Not everything in a foreign language can be mastered the first time. This is especially true for grammar rules, of which there are many in English. More than once, students, in their quest to master a foreign language, have to return to the same topic and analyze it again and again. Today we propose to consider the aspect of the perfect present tense, and to do this not only from the theoretical side, but also in close tandem with practice. We will give examples for each present perfect rule that will act as a visual example. Thanks to the methodical development of structures, knowledge of the rules will be absorbed subconsciously; all that remains is to consolidate it with training exercises.

In order to understand the significance of this aspect, it is necessary to rethink the Russian approach to the tense system. In our speech, completed actions automatically refer to the past. In English, it is not the fact of completion that is important, but the relevance of the action. Therefore, the perfect can be in the past, in the present and in the future.

The present perfect tense includes those actions whose results are relevant at the moment. Accordingly, the events of this aspect:

were completed quite recently;
happened once, but the result appeared only now;
express everyday experience;
are long-term (started in the past, are happening now and will continue in the future).*

*The last paragraph uses verbs that cannot be used in meaning with the Perfect Continuous, or can be used equally in both tenses.

Let's move on to mastering meanings in practice, which the next section will help us with.

Present perfect example sentences

Predicates in this form are grammatical constructions consisting of two elements. Let us examine in detail each type of sentence in the present perfect.

Statement

Affirmative phrases that carry a positive result of an action are formed using the auxiliary have and the past participle. Moreover, the auxiliary verb has different forms: for the 3rd person singular. (he, she, it) – has, for everyone else – have. Let us derive a generalized diagram.

Nick(1)has(2) bought(3) anewdressforme(4) - Nick bought me a new dress.

This is the basic form from which other types of utterances are derived. To practice it, we will give examples of 10 affirmative sentences with translation in the present perfect.

They have finished theprojectA-20 thisweek– They completed the A-20 project this week.
I have used thiscomputersince2010 – I have been using this computer since 2010.
She has lived in England for three months –ShelivedVEngland 3month.
We have just cooked potatoes with vegetables –We just cooked potatoes and vegetables.
You have already been in Prague –YoualreadywereVPrague.
I have seen a koala in the local zoo three times. It has always slept – I saw a koala at the local zoo three times. SheAlwayssleeping.
They have owned this building since they bought it in 1999 –TheyownthisbuildingWiththosesince thenHowboughthisin 1999year.
He has always liked such films –To himAlwayslikedsuchmovies.
We have never flown byamilitaryplane– We have never flown on a military plane.
It is the first time she has painted someone's portrait –Shefirstdrewwhose-Thatportrait.

Please note that present perfect phrases are translated into Russian using both perfect verbs and imperfect constructions.

Negation

The particle not is responsible for the negative result of an action, as in all English aspects. Once it is added to the corresponding form of have, the affirmative statement turns into a negation.

Children(1) have not (2) done (3) their homework yet (4) – ChildrenmoreNotdonemyhomework.

Much more often, both in colloquial speech and in writing, the abbreviations haven’t/haven’t are used.

He hasn't been in Africa for five months –HeNotwasVAfrica 5months.
I haven 't feed mydogyet– I haven’t fed my dog yet.
We haven't packed our suitcases –WeNotpackedoursuitcases.
She hasn't been seen her best girlfriend for many years –SheNotsawmythe bestgirlfrienda lot ofyears.
You haven 't passed thisexam– You failed this exam.

Being derived from statements, negative sentences are not fraught with complexity. The only thing worth mentioning is that if the expression contains negative adverbs, then the second negation (not) is no longer placed, because There cannot be two negatives in a sentence in English!

She has never played football– She never played football.
She hasn't 't played footballthisweekShe didn't play football this week.

Keep this rule in mind when using negative adverbs.

Questions

To create a general question, you need to perform a syntactic rearrangement of the verb have, moving it to the beginning of the phrase.

Has(1) she (2) answered(3) all your questions already (4)? – ShealreadyansweredonAllyoursquestions?

Have you ever cooked a Caesar salad? –YouWhen-somedaypreparedsaladCaesar?
Have they gone to the city’s museum two times? –Did they go to the city museum twice?

Such questions can be answered using short constructions Yes, shehas/wehave or No, shehasn't't/wehaven't. In place of she/we, any pronoun corresponding to the statement is inserted.

Alternative questions that provide a choice of two indicated options require a more precise answer. Outwardly, they are similar to general questions, but they have an additional (alternative) part, attached by the conjunction or.

Have you been friends since 2004 or since 2005? –Yoube friendssince 2004of the yearorsince 2005?
Has she studied Japanese or Chinese for 7 years? –ShesevenyearsteachesJapaneselanguageorChineselanguage?

When using special question words, general sentences change their construction for the present perfect tense, skipping significant words forward.

Where has he bought such a dictionary? –WhereHeboughtsuchdictionary?
How long have we known each other? –How long have we known each other?
A separate type of special combinations is a question for the subject.
Who has written is it on the blackboard? –WhowroteThisonblackboard?
Who has just used mysmartphone? – Who just used my smartphone?

By the way, short phrases can be used to answer this question: Ihave, shehas and so on.

Interrogative sentences with a negative construction have a special emotional connotation. They are used only in colloquial speech.

Hasn 't he called hismotheryet? “Hasn’t he called his mom yet?”
Haven 't I told themaboutthatsituation? “Didn’t I tell them about that situation?”

And the last type is dividing questions. At first glance, they look like statements, but if you look closely, you can identify a question tail with a pronoun and the verb have. It is noteworthy that the additive will always be opposite in meaning to the main phrase.

You have played basketball this week, haven't you? – YouplayedVbasketballonthisweek,isn't itNo?
She has ridden an elephant, hasn't she? – She rode an elephant, didn't she?
They haven 't been inthejungle, have they ? “They weren’t in the jungle, were they?”
Jack hasn't 't visited you, has he ? “Jack hasn’t visited you yet, has he?”

So, we have considered all possible types of the perfect present in statements of various types. Before moving on to the exercises, let’s summarize the information received and remember again what grammatical constructions of the present perfect and example sentences can be found in the speech of native Englishmen.

Statement		Negation
We have had this cat for 10 years already. We've had this cat for 10 years.		She hasn't cooked a cake this week. She didn't make a cake this week.
Questions
General	Alternative		Special
Have they seen this performance? They watched thisplay?	Has he bought a scooter or a bicycle? Did he buy a scooter or a bicycle?		When have we been in Berlin? When were we in Berlin?
To the subject	Negative		Dividing
Who has opened the door? Who opened the door?	Haven't they gone to the club? Didn't they go to the club?		She has read this book, hasn't she ? She read this book, didn't she?

Good luck in the practical exercises and see you next time!

As soon as it comes to questions in English, many people get confused and start to panic. But the world of English questions is not at all scary, and on the contrary, it is interesting and varied. The rules for constructing Present Perfect interrogative sentences will help you verify this.

General information

The Present Perfect or Present Perfect tends to raise a lot of questions among English language learners. On the one hand, difficulties arise in understanding when it is necessary to use a given tense. On the other hand, there are many undercurrents with its grammatical construction, because the Present Perfect consists not of one verb, but of two: have/has + main verb in 3rd form .

This formula “works” in affirmative sentences, the formation of which always uses direct word order: subjects + predicate + minor members of the sentence . However, it collapses in interrogative sentences, since a different word order is provided for them - reverse.

General question

There are five types of questions in English:

General
Special
Question to the subject
Alternative
Dividing

The General Question is always easy to find out. Its distinctive features are the auxiliary verb in the first place and it is enough to answer “Yes” or “No”. The interrogative form of the Present Perfect is built according to the formula: have/has + subjects + main verb in the 3rd degree . It also persists in the formation of a general question:

Have you ever been to France? - Yes, I have (Have you ever been to France? - Yes, I have)

Has he ever traveled by car? - No, he has not (Has he ever traveled by car? - No, never)

Special

Special questions also retain their individuality: they begin with the question words What?

(What?), Why? (Why?), Where? (Where?), When? (When?), Which? (Which?), Whose? (Whose?), Whom? (To whom?), How? (How?). The following is the interrogative form of the Present Perfect: question word + have/has + subjects + verb in 3rd form :

TOP 4 articleswho are reading along with this

Question to the subject

This type of question begins with the question words Who? (Who?) or What? (What?). It is one of the easier construction questions because it does not require reverse word order. All you need to do is eliminate the subjects and use question words instead. Next is the direct word order: Who/What + has + main verb in 3rd form?

Who has come to you this morning? -Who came to you this morning?

What has made you feel happy this year? - What made you feel happy this year?

Please note that in Questions to the subject, the auxiliary verb is always used in the 3rd person singular - has.

Alternative

As the name suggests, the specialty of this question is to provide an “alternative.” The conjunction or (or) helps him to offer a choice of two options: “This or that?”, “Here or there?”. Its structure is similar to the structure of the general question:

Has she never tasted mango or orange? - Has she never tried mango or orange?

Have you found your key this morning or this evening? - Did you find your keys this morning or this evening?

Dividing

The Dividing or Disjunctive Question consists of two parts. The first is affirmation or denial. Here the direct word order is preserved. The second is a short positive or negative question, which is based on the principle “ auxiliary verb have/has + subjects" :

Affirmative sentence + short negative question:
He has invited many friends to the party, hasn’t he? - He invited a lot of friends to the party, didn't he?
Negative sentence + short positive question:
A lion has not escaped from the central zoo, has it? - The lion didn't escape from the central zoo, did it?

The second part of the dividing question can be translated into Russian as follows: “isn’t it?”, “yes?”, “isn’t it true?”

What have we learned?

Today we looked at how questions are constructed in the Present Perfect. In general, special and alternative questions, the interrogative form of the Present Perfect is used – have/has + subjects + verb in the 3rd form. In the question to the subject and in the disjunctive question, the direct word order is maintained with minor changes.