Sort your own ten
Your ten sentences. Sort them into two piles — the ones with a finished time in them, and the ones without. Do not change anything yet.
Now check which tense you used in each pile. Most people find they used one tense for both.
Eight time expressions. Match each to whether the period it names has closed.
News, then details
Three short exchanges. Watch the tense change halfway through each one.
— I have broken my wrist. — How? — I fell off my bike on Tuesday. It was completely my own fault.
— They have offered me the job. — When did you hear? — They rang on Thursday afternoon, while I was in the supermarket.
— I have given up coffee. — Since when? — I stopped in January. I had three weeks of headaches and then it was fine.
Four questions about the pattern in those three exchanges.
1. The first sentence of each exchange is present perfect. What is it doing?
2. Every reply switches to past simple. Why?
3. Could the first speaker have said I have broken my wrist on Tuesday?
4. What is the practical pattern?
The one question
Ask yourself one thing: can I say when, and is that when finished?
Yes, and it is finished → past simple.
No, or the period includes today → present perfect.
That is the entire rule. Everything below is the same question in different clothes.
The same fact, both ways
| Present perfect | Past simple | What changed |
|---|---|---|
| I have been to Japan. | I went to Japan in 2019. | A finished time is stated |
| I have lived here for ten years. | I lived there for ten years. | The perfect says I still do; the simple says I do not |
| Have you seen my keys? | Did you see my keys? | The perfect asks about now; the simple asks about a moment we both have in mind |
| She has written three books. | She wrote three books. | The simple implies she has stopped, or is dead |
| I have not eaten today. | I did not eat yesterday. | Today is open; yesterday is closed |
| It has been a long week. | It was a long week. | The perfect means the week is not over |
Why this is hard for a Portuguese speaker, specifically. Portuguese has a form that looks exactly like the present perfect — tenho feito — and it means something else: a repeated or ongoing action, not an experience.
So the shape is familiar and the meaning is not, and the safest-feeling move is the past simple, which is always grammatical and often says the wrong thing about time.
I never went to Japan is not wrong English. It implies a closed life. That is what makes this error invisible from the inside.
Four sentences have been removed. Put each one back where it belongs — the tense in each is the clue.
I have worked in three schools and I have only really been happy in one of them. [1] I left after eighteen months and I have never regretted it.
The second was better. [2] I stayed for six years, which is longer than I have stayed anywhere since.
And then this one. [3] I have been here for four years and I still look forward to Mondays, which is not a sentence I ever expected to write.
[4] I think the honest answer is that I got lucky twice and unlucky once, and that most of what I have learned came from the unlucky one.
Choosing, over and over
One to three words per gap. Some gaps want the perfect and some want the simple. Ask the question each time.
I in Coimbra for six years, from 2014 until I finished my degree. Since then I in four different cities. I to Lisbon twice and left twice, which my mother finds funny. I back last spring and this time I think I will stay. I anywhere else that has the river.
Eight sentences. Six have the wrong tense; two are already correct.
1. I have seen him yesterday.
2. I never went to Argentina.
3. She has written four novels and she is working on the fifth.
4. Did you ever eat oysters?
5. We have moved here in 2018.
6. I lived in this flat for three years and I love it.
7. My grandmother wrote two books before she died.
8. Have you finished the report on Tuesday?
Six pairs where the tense changes the meaning. Match each sentence to what it actually tells you.
News, then details
Task card · Speaking · Pairs · 4 minutes each
Six pieces of news about your own life. Some can be from the last month; some can be from years ago. They must all be true.
Announce each one in the perfect. Your partner asks for the details. You answer in the simple.
- Announce: I have… — no date, no time, just the fact.
- Your partner asks one question: When? · How? · Since when? · Who with?
- Answer with the details, in the past simple, with a real finished time in it.
- Six each. If you slip and put a date into the announcement, start that one again.
The restart rule is the exercise. I have moved house last month is exactly the sentence this unit exists to remove, and it will come out of your mouth. Catch it and say it again.
The three shapes
Four sentences from the announcements. Fix each and say which rule it broke.
1. I have started a new job in September.
2. I didn’t travel outside Europe in my life.
3. Have you been to the new place last week?
4. I am learning Italian since January.
One question
Three questions.
1. What is the question that decides between the two tenses?
2. She wrote three books. What does the tense imply about her?
3. You announce news and then give details. Which tenses, in which order?
Before next lesson. Choose three experiences that actually changed you. For each one, write the announcement in the perfect and two details in the simple.
Next lesson you speak for four minutes on those three, and the tense switching is what will be listened for.