Present Perfect mind map

Have you ever ridden a horse? Have you ever seen a chinchilla? Have you ever eaten caviar?
And, most importantly: Have you ever been confused about the Present Perfect Tense? If you
have, now is the perfect moment to clear things up!
Before we start, pay attention to the tense used above the Present Perfect itself!
!ow, have a loo" at the enthusiastic scientist who is wor"ing hard in his laboratory# $hat do you
thin" he is doing? $ell, a very important thing, obviously# %e is ma"ing things easier for you,
mi&ing two ingredients the present tense and the past tense, forming a completely new blend
the PRESENT PERFECT TENSE! Try to memori'e the picture, since it is actually the basis of
the Present Perfect, which represents a mi&ture of the past and the present( And not only that#
I )et us start from the first branch on the right, that is, the navy blue one# It e&plains the positive
form of the tense used in a sentence# Imagine that the train is an *nglish sentence# As you can
see, every *nglish sentence must start with a sub+ect ,of course, there are always e&ceptions to
the rule-, so the sub+ect in the locomotive here waves to us, showing his rightful place in the
world of rules# The ne&t part of a sentence is reserved for the predicate# %ere, the predicate
consists of two compartments the au&iliary ,have.has- and the main verb ,past participle form-#
!otice:
has is used only for the third person singular ,he, she, it-
past participle
/ if the verb is irregular, past participle is the third column of irregular verbs
/ if the verb is regular, suffi& ed is added to the infinitive#
*&ample: The train has +ust arrived#
,!ote: In the sentence above just is an adverb, meaning 0a short time ago1 and it is typically
used between the au&iliary and the main verb-#
II !ow that we have learned the positive form, let2s proceed to e&plain the green branch,
pertaining to the negative form# Basically, it is very simple# 3or negative form, au&iliaries have
not. has not ,haven!t.hasn!t- are used, and again, followed by the main verb in the past
participle form#
III The red branch e&plains the 4uestion form# The locomotive, which comes first, stands for the
"h# 4uestion word ,what, where, how, which, when(-# It is optional ,in brac"ets- because a
4uestion need not always begin with a 4uestion word# If you want to ma"e a 4uestion in the
Present Perfect Tense, use the au&iliary have.has, then place the sub+ect and then the main verb,
again in the past participle# ,to sum up: use inversion to ma$e %uestions-
I& And now, the most confusing part ,the red branch- when to use the Present Perfect Tense?
The good news is it is not confusing at all if you +ust evo"e to your mind the picture of the
scientist mi&ing the present and the past! 5o, again, the Present Perfect is al"a's some $ind of
mi(ture of the past and the present!

As you can see, the first use outlined stands for an action "hich started in the past and
is still going on in the present# It is a rather simple rule, but many students find it
ambiguous since they don2t have such a tense in their language# 5o, let us illustrate the
rule with an e&ample:
/ 5he has wor"ed as a teacher for five years# ,5he started wor"ing as a teacher five years
ago and is still wor"ing as a teacher#-
5econdly, use the Present Perfect Tense for an unspecified action "hich happened
before no"# $hat does it mean? It means that we +ust state what has happened, without
mentioning when it happened ,we do not "now when it happened, or, simply, it is not
important-#
*&ample: I have planted a tree#
!ote: if we state "hen something happened, then the Past 5imple Tense should be used#
*&ample: I planted a tree 'esterda'#
Thirdly, whenever we tal" about life e(periences, we should use the Present Perfect
Tense#
*&amples:
/ 5he has been to )ondon twice#
/ Have you ever ridden a horse?
3urther on, use the Present Perfect when you tal" about present results ,an action in the
past has a result now-# As you can see in the picture, there is a small "ey drawn,
suggesting the following e&ample: I have lost my "ey ,the result: !ow I cannot enter my
apartment-# 6r: 5he has bro$en her leg# ,!ow she cannot wal"-#
The following branch says that you should use the Present Perfect Tense when you state
ne" information# And, if you haven2t noticed so far, pay attention to how much the
Present Perfect is used in the news!
*&amples: /!ova" 7+o"ovic has not lost in 89 matches in a row#
-There have been :; ma+or earthquakes in <alifornia since :=>?#
$hen it comes to adverbs, try to memori'e which adverbs go with which tense, because
it will simplify things to a great e&tent# If you have been preparing for a test in *nglish,
remember that these adverbs re4uire the Present Perfect tense: ever, never, since, for,
alread', )ust, 'et, recentl', latel', so far, up to no"(
*&amples:
/ %ave you ever been to the @5A?
/ 5he has never flown by plane#
/ Aohn has wor"ed as an engineer since 9??>#
/ Baria has lived in Italy for ten years#
/ Bi"e has alread' done his homewor"#
/ They have )ust left#
/ %aven2t you got ready 'et?
/ I haven2t seen 7iane recentl'#
/ 5he hasn2t slept much latel'#
/ Aane has seen that movie several times so far#
/ I have wor"ed very hard up to no"#