Everyday Uses of Present Perfect Basic English Grammar
hi everybody welcome back to our weekly
live stream my name is Alisha and today
I’m going to talk about everyday uses of
present perfect tense present perfect
tense is a grammar point that many of
you have asked questions about so today
I’m going to share some patterns that
you can use in your everyday life I’m
going to talk about using questions with
present perfect tense to make greetings
I’m going to talk about how to use it
for news and reports and I’m going to
talk about just some general life
experience questions and responses so as
you join please send a message in the
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now - if you missed it today’s topic is
everyday uses of present perfect tense a
lot of you have asked questions about
this so I’m excited to discuss it today
if you have questions during today’s
lesson please send the messages in the
chat I will try to check as much as
possible but if you want more
information about today’s grammar point
you can find it on the English class 101
youtube channel or of course from the
lessons on the English class 101.com
website so please check that out there
are lots of resources for you okay
I will share the video done and then I
had one thing I wanted to mention to
everybody - I actually I shared this
last week I shared this photo last week
if you have not seen this we have a
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this is a picture from when we were
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oh ok so with that as I said today we’re
going to talk about present perfect
tense let’s begin
hi everybody there are lots of people
here now great great okay I’m gonna get
started then so first I want to review
the present perfect tense present
perfect tense we’re going to use present
perfect tense and we’re going to use
present perfect with the progressive or
the continuous form so to kind of give a
visual to be able to see this grammar
point we use this tense for actions that
started in the past so there’s something
in the past a beginning point in the
past this is a timeline here’s now in
this case watching this lesson or
teaching this lesson if you mean the
past and the future so for today’s
grammar point present
perfect tense is used for actions that
started in the past and they continue to
the present or the effect of that action
continues to the present so when we make
sentences like I have studied English
for three years or I have lived in this
country for three years those are
examples of present perfect tense today
I’m going to talk about this with
progressive tense a lot too so just a
refresher what is present perfect tense
it’s for actions that started in the
past and continued to the future for
more information about this grammar
point
please check the English class 101
YouTube channel - ok so I want to first
talk about how to use this grammar point
in greetings so this is a really great
thing to do for intermediate students if
you want to go past like hello how are
you these are some more natural
greetings that you can use and they use
the present perfect tense or the
progressive tense as well so here first
one how have you been so I’ve broken
this down how have you been how have you
been it’s like how are you but how are
you since the last time I saw you so
imagine you’re speaking to someone now
you’re saying hello to someone now back
here you met them maybe and they have
been doing other things but you haven’t
seen them in a long time
how have you been means in this period
when I didn’t see you like what were you
doing what was your status how have you
been how have you been I’m going to
cover pronunciation points today - so
this how have you been we reduced this
part right here so this how have becomes
how of halluf and this why oh you sounds
like yeah how have you been how have you
been
so this is a much more natural way to
greet someone especially if you have not
seen them for a long time
how have you been so to answer this
question a very simple answer is the
most natural and also it’s just easy to
remember so how have you been good
have you been busy how have you been a
bit sick or a little sick so just use a
one word just a simple adjective great
fine good how about you so this is a
good one to use to level up from how are
you how have you been
so please remember you can use this only
with people you have met before
so if this is a new person you can’t use
how have you been use this with friends
family members and so on okay yeah
someone has another example I’ve been
good
only yelled oh yeah only although in the
YouTube chat says I’ve been good so
using the present perfect tense in the
response I have been good since the last
time I saw you great um how have I been
I’ve been great yeah how how is
everybody else been yeah and that’s
another point I just used the expression
how has everybody else been so if your
subject in this case I’m using you how
have you been if you want to talk about
someone else like for example someone
sick you can use that same pattern like
but you need to change you to in this
case he or she and you also need to
conjugate your verb here to has how has
he or she been so like a sick parent for
example how has he been how has she been
and so you’ll hear the same reduction
how has he been how has she been reduces
to how has he been
how has she been
okay let’s continue on to the next
expression I want to talk about which is
what have you been up to what have you
been up to I practiced this one a lot in
like a quick response session with my
students one day and this was a really
fun one what have you been up to we make
this very short in everyday speech so
you can see this part what have you been
this is exactly the same as the first
sentence or the first question I
introduced but we have this up to this
is like asking what have you been doing
but up to this what have you been up to
sounds very casual and very friendly so
what have you been up to at native speed
sounds like what have you been up to
what have you been up to so when you
respond to this question what have you
been up to not much you can use the same
response as what’s up not much or you
can say just work just study that kind
of thing nothing much is a very natural
response but notice this question here
what what so this is a key difference
from how have you been how have you been
is like asking mmm were you good were
you busy and so on not yet so what have
you been up to is asking about your
activities about your activities so
study and so on okay I am getting a
message from control just for a second
here what
why I don’t understand okay
so let’s move on to the next point here
you’ll notice there’s a Grammer
difference in this case so what have you
been doing what have you been doing the
difference here is right here in this
first one I used up to to end the
sentence to end the question here I’m
using the progressive form what have you
been doing what have you been doing so
natural responses to this will use this
ing form
I’ve been studying what have you been
doing I’ve been studying I’ve been
working been cleaning my house so you
can use that ing form to answer this
question okay
finally I want to do one more and then
we’ll take a quick break so this one
this question be careful when you use
this question where have you been where
have you been is used in many cases when
you’re upset with someone you’re unhappy
with someone you were looking for
someone but you could not find them
where have you been
so to answer this you need to give a
location the person is asking about your
location here so where have you been in
the house at the office so these very
quick responses are very natural so try
to use these when someone asks you one
of these kind of greeting style
questions okay good so that’s a few
examples of using the present perfect
tense for greeting so if you have
questions send them along but I’m going
to take a quick break okay so if you
have not seen it yet this year as always
we have free stuff for you guys so this
week I thought it would be really good
to share a couple things that you can
use with the present perfect tense so
like for example are we going to use
this camera
oh but there’s a couple of these are all
free PDFs we have on our website but I
thought a few of these would be really
good for present perfect tense in your
everyday life
one of them business you’ll see it in
just a second I think maybe but for now
this is the business English PDF so you
can find all of these for free in the
link below the video on youtube or above
the video on Facebook but actually and
we’ll zoom in in a minute I think on the
back of this is a list of common job
titles for example president or
assistant manager general manager and so
on so I was thinking and we’ll see this
later will be 8 Bob Wilson will show it
here it’s hard to see here but there’s a
list of job titles on this business
English PDF and I thought this would be
a nice match especially for a part 2 of
today’s lesson when you need to give
information about who you’ve been
talking to recently or who you’ve been
meeting with recently so I know many of
you are trying to study English for
career opportunities so this might be a
good one to get a few this might be a
good PDF I mean to find a few natural
ways to explain someone’s job title and
then there’s also just some other good
business English related phrases so
there there are a lot more but I want to
focus on some kind of everyday
vocabulary words that you can use with
this grammar point to so I’ll share
another one of these layers but if you
want to get all of these like you can
get all of these actually and more they
are from the link below the video on
YouTube above the video on Facebook
please check that out everything is in
English class 101 dot-com
okay so if you’re just joining today’s
lesson is about everyday uses of present
perfect tense present perfect tense so
if you have not already please make sure
to LIKE the video and share the video so
that other learners can find today’s
lesson to refresh if you’re just joining
remember present perfect tense is used
for actions that started in the past and
continue to the present or the effects
of that action continue to the present
so with that I want to go to the second
part of today’s lesson this part is
going to use this ing form the
progressive with present perfect tense
here so we use this when we really want
to emphasize that an action started and
is continuing when we want to show that
something is continuing and that perhaps
it’s going to continue even after the
conversation into the future we can use
the progressive form so part two of
today’s lesson is sharing recent news so
sharing recent news or this is also
useful for talking about work like if
you want to report on your recent
activities at work so for example if
you’re at a meeting or if you’re
explaining your work to someone you can
say I’ve been working on so preposition
on is used here to introduce the topic
so for example I’ve been working on this
livestream or I’ve been working on a
Scalia these sorts of things what is the
topic what is the thing your project in
other words if it’s not a work-related
situation you can talk about like a
personal project so I’ve been working on
my garden or I’ve been working on my
website so a couple
I hear many learners forget this sound
either I’ve this I’ve is the contracted
form of I have I’ve been working on
something so please don’t forget I’ve
I’ve and then of course as I said the
ing I’ve been working on something okay
second another example I’ve been reading
about I’ve been reading about if you
read the news a lot or if you read a lot
of books if you’re researching something
you can introduce the topic of your
reading with this pattern I’ve been
reading about US politics I’ve been
reading about my favorite research topic
I’ve been reading about how to improve
my website so introduce the topic in
this sentence same thing here don’t
forget your eyes you can use I have I
have been reading about I have been
working on but it sounds really stiff
and kind of unnatural so I recommend
I’ve been nice there’s some good example
sentences on the youtube and facebook
chat for YouTube some examples on house
on el angel says I’ve been working on my
new car great or I’ve been working up
Felipe I’ve been working on on my next
project so I’ve been working on
something preposition is on I’ve been
working on my research since last year
nice um what else
us a lot the from Thailand I I’ve been
reading about the universe good on
Facebook says I’ve been working on my
resume nice very nice nnedi says I’ve
been listening I’ve been listening ok
I’ve been listening maybe to podcasts
about meditation or I’ve been listening
to like meditation
CDs I’m not exactly sure great
okay nice examples everybody okay let’s
move on to another one this is one I’ve
seen many questions about I have some
work we’re keeping this
I’ve been pattern but here I’m using the
verb wanting I’ve been wanting to so a
lot of students a lot of learners ask
like why is wanting used here like
wanting is like a state right I want to
do something actually this next week’s
lesson is going to be about this topic
but I’ve been wanting to for example
I’ve been wanting to see that movie
like let’s say I’ve been wanting to see
the new spider-man I have not seen the
new spider-man you think here it’s good
anyway I’ve been wanting to see the new
spider-man for example so why do we use
wanting here like why not use I want to
see the new spider-man we use the
progressive form here to show oh we’re
zoomed in right now oh we can see it
cool that’s fine so to show like maybe
thank you when we first learned the
first time we learned about the movie in
this case the new spider-man movie we
thought oh I want to see that movie but
like I haven’t seen it yet I still
haven’t seen the movie so from that
point when I learned about the movie and
I thought I want to see it I
continuously wanted to see it so I
expressed that with I’ve been wanting to
see the new spider-man movie this is the
reason we use the wonked are wanting in
the progressive form I’ve been wanting
to someone says is it important to use
the comma perhaps on the IV yes and this
is not a comma this is an apostrophe the
spelling is this apostrophe AP OST
your fee yes you must use an apostrophe
here punctuation is very
important punctuation is your friend so
yes you must use that there but to kind
of summarize this is the reason we use
wanting I’m the progressive form here
good so some of you are sending other
examples great I’ve been wanting to do
my homework really very nice okay
I’ve been wanting to improve my English
very nice I’ve been wanting to travel to
Hawaii great I’ve been wanting to see
Cole to pursuit what’s that I don’t know
that is that a TV show it’s a movie I
don’t know okay great example sentences
I’ve been wanting to propose to her like
to your girlfriend Wow okay I’ve been
what I’ve been wanting to speak with
Alicia woohoo cool thanks for joining
live great nice examples let’s go on to
the last pair I want to change the
subject here like literally change the
subject from I’ve to he or she is also
okay the reason I want to do this even
though in many cases you’re talking
about your life your work the things you
have been doing if you want to talk
about someone else again so a great
example like we talked about before is
like a sick person in your life or
something like that anyway my point is
when your subject is like he or she
you’re talking about another person or
maybe it as well remember this part
right here conjugates so we’ve been
using I have been I’ve been I’ve been
when your subject is he or she this
apostrophe s refers to has he has been
she has been so please don’t forget that
in everyday speech we say he’s been
talking to me she’s been talking to me
so this is something you could use to
describe like a an ongoing which means a
recent a continuing conversation at work
or in your personal life like he’s been
talking to me about a new project or
she’s been talking to me about a
promotion so you can use
thing like this with the verb talking in
this case to explain a recent
conversation you have had like what I
want to say like a conversation about
the same topic that you’ve had a few
times with someone this is a natural way
to express that she’s been talking to me
about he’s been talking to me about it
isn’t necessarily gossip no so if you’re
talking about a work project and you
have regular meetings about this topic
for example you could use this
so sometimes yes it is for gossip like
oh she’s been talking to me about her
new boyfriend that kind of thing
sure true but it’s also used in non
gossip related situations
let’s see Israel on Facebook says what
about the preposition about before
inactivity can I use an activity erver
yes you can your example I’ve been
reading about swimming yes that is
correct that is correct that’s fine
so before an activity is great activity
or another topic like a topic of
discussion great
other examples she’s been talking to him
about work great nice all right
I’ll finish off with this another one a
different subject we again when you use
we as the subject we’ll go back to this
book we’ve been we’ve been if you are
for example in a relationship or you’re
married or you’re living with someone
and you make decisions together with
that person you can use this like we’ve
been thinking about buying a house we’ve
been thinking about building a pool
we’ve been thinking about getting a dog
so these are this is a great pattern to
use for decisions you make with other
people we’ve been thinking about
something okay so this is for recent
news for given reports and in this part
yes I focused a lot on using the program
SIV form here this sounds very natural
okay great we’ll take one more break and
then we’ll finish with the last part
some question and response practice so
the first break I showed you this
business English PDF I thought the job
titles would be good to practice for
those of you who are studying for career
reasons but for other reasons actually
this is funny somebody in the chat
mentioned gossip if you’re interested in
gossip and like romantic gossip there is
a romance and love related PDF but this
one this one actually has lots of like
phrases you use for dates so that could
be good for Valentine’s Day that’s
coming if you want to pick up a few
phrases for that this one does exist
there is a romance one um that’s good
but there’s one more that I wanted to
mention which was the school your school
related vocabulary so this is the back
it says back to school yes but on the
back there’s a list of like common
classes so if you want to describe your
studies like I know many people are
students many of you are students if you
want to talk about your studies and
you’re looking for like a quick
reference for the titles of your classes
this has there’s eight on the back here
that you can take a look at and of
course there are some other classroom
related things here too so this I
thought would be good for students
perhaps and then of course if you want
to talk about your family members there
is a family PDF too with here a family
tree and key words for each family
member so you can take a look at these
so I thought these would be nice for
today but as I said there are a lot
there I don’t even know how many like
somewhere around there I don’t know
there are a lot of these so if you are
interested these are free you can
download these from the link below the
video on youtube or above the video on
Facebook please check the link in the
description not in the chatbox so I
think chat desk is sending a few things
in the chat so please take a look at
that I hope it’s useful for you alright
we are going to finish now with the last
topic for today’s lesson if you’re just
joining today’s lesson is about everyday
uses of present perfect tense which we
use to talk about actions that started
in the past and continue to the present
so if you have not already please do
like and share the video so other people
can find it that would be great ok let’s
go on to the last point for today
I want to talk finally about questions
and responses for life experience and I
want to talk about natural ways to like
kind of fit present perfect tense
together with simple past tense so these
are some common questions about life
experience so you’ll notice here these
are not using the progressive tense I
focused on progressive ing farm here I’m
not going to focus on it here these are
four things that you want to ask about
like just general experience for example
have you ever heard of have you ever
heard of ever is an emphasis word have
you ever heard of have you ever read
have you ever heard of is more natural
than do you know so like I hear some
people saying like do you know sushi
like right do you know sushi or like do
you know you know this pop star do you
know that a more natural way and this is
the way native speakers ask the question
is have you ever heard of have you ever
heard of sushi have you ever heard of
this
star have you ever heard of English
class 101 check it out have you ever
heard okay so use this instead of do you
know that’s like a levelled up version
of do you know similarly have you ever
read this I included this specifically
as a pronunciation reminder the spelling
is ar e ad but the pronunciation is red
have you ever read so spelling no change
but the pronunciation does change this
is the past participle form of the verb
read have you ever read that book have
you ever read my blog have you ever read
that story so this is for written
information this is a question for
information we get with our ears or just
kind of more general information we
learn about for written information use
have you ever read have you ever read
someone write have you ever heard of
India yes of course
great okay I don’t see other examples
nice okay another one very similar to
have you ever heard of is this one have
you heard about okay what’s the
difference here have you ever heard of
and have you heard about this one I’ve
labeled one and two to hear is about a
recent news topic like have you heard
about the president’s latest speech or
have you heard about tourism in the
country recently have you heard about
this new policy we use this question for
a recent thing have you heard about
topic so this word our sorry this
pattern have you ever heard of this ever
as I said is an emphasis word so ever
sounds more like in your whole life in
your like all of your life’s experience
have you ever heard of this thing this
one no ever have you heard about
so this is another good pattern for
gossip like have you heard about her new
boyfriend or have you heard about his
new girlfriend or have you heard about
what happened last week so this is a
very popular expression to begin a
gossip related conversation good okay um
finally these two these two patterns and
then I’ll talk about simple past of it I
gotta finish up first have you ever been
to this is great for travel great for
travel have you ever been to India have
you ever been to Thailand have you ever
been to Japan have you ever been to what
is a China
I forgot whether it’s in Japan and China
thinking ahead all right never been to
China great so this is a fantastic
question you can use to talk about your
travel experiences finally a statement
I’ve never something that before I’ve
never something that before I included
this here past participle verb as a
reminder but I really want to share one
specific pattern here I’ve never heard
that before
or I’ve never seen that before so this
is for something you have no life
experience hearing listening to or
seeing watching I’ve never seen that
before
so when you see something new or you
hear something totally new in your life
experience or you could use the verb
eaten even I’ve never eaten that before
like you find a new food use the present
perfect tense to describe that naturally
and fluently I’ve never eaten that
before and same thing here I’ve I okay
so to finish I want to make a small
point about using this with simple past
tense so these all use this have you
ever pattern and so when you
so these have you ever typed questions
or have you heard about if your answer
is yes
like for example and have you heard
about the new spider-man movie if your
answer is yes you can say yes I have or
just yes and then give a simple past
tense response yes I saw it on TV
yesterday or I saw news about it
yesterday have you ever heard of sushi
for example yes I ate it when I was in
the u.s. so use a simple past tense
response you do not need to use a
present perfect like statements to give
details give your details in simple past
tense because you’re talking about an
experience that is finished we use
simple past tense for finished things if
however your answer is no so have you
heard about the new spider-man movie no
I haven’t done that’s it no I haven’t or
just no or have you ever heard of sushi
no I haven’t so keep the simple present
present perfect tense there so yes give
your details in simple past tense no
give a simple answer in present perfect
tense ok good so we’ll finish there for
today that was a lot great so I hope
that this was helpful for you
again if you have questions about this
grammar please take a look at our
website English class 101.com or take a
look at our YouTube channel there is a
video about present perfect tense I made
a while back so please check that out
and don’t forget to download your free
stuff from the link below the video on
youtube and above
video on Facebook there’s a lot I didn’t
talk about the mall today but if you
missed today’s lesson don’t worry it has
been recorded and we will be back next
week next week will be what’s the date I
can’t see January 23rd January 23rd
January 23rd on Wednesday akule and the
topic will be stative verbs in the
continuous what what what is happening
stative verbs is what I have planned so
native birds in the continuous form so a
good example here is this verb wanting
wanting this is in the continuous form
stative verbs in the continuous form so
like this is verbs like like and have do
and be that we usually use in present
tense but I’m gonna talk about those in
the continuous form how to use them and
why so please join us again next week
January 23rd that’s Wednesday at 9 p.m.
Eastern Standard Time 9:00 p.m. Eastern
Standard Time is New York City time and
if you don’t know your time please
google it
oh well be here if you’re not sure as
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please in the meantime check out the
free stuff for download and enjoy your
studies as always I hope your New Year’s
resolutions are going well alright I’ll
finish there so thank you everybody for
joining us this week thank you for
liking and sharing the video and for
sending your example sentences and
questions I hope that you enjoy the rest
of your week enjoy your weekend and
we’ll see you again next time
you