Present Perfect with ‘just’ and ‘yet’

 

We use the Present Perfect to talk about actions or events in the past that still have an effect on the present moment.

 

Consider the example:

 

Tom is currently on holiday in Moscow. He has a list of things he wants to see and do while he’s there:

• See Red Square.✅
• Visit the Kremlin.✅
• Eat some Russian food.✅
• Buy some vodka.❌
• Go to the ballet.❌
• Learn some Russian!❌

Here, there is a connection between the past and the present. We can use the Present Perfect to talk about the things Tom has / hasn’t seen / done:

• He has seen Red Square.
• He has visited the Kremlin.
• He has eaten some Russian food.
• He hasn’t bought any vodka (yet).
• He hasn’t been to the ballet (yet).
• He hasn’t learned any Russian (yet).

 

We often use ‘yet’ with negative and question forms of the Present Perfect. It means something like ‘until now’. It usually comes at the end of the sentence.

• Sue: Have you seen Red Square yet?
• Tom: Yes, I’ve just seen it.  I was there this morning.
• Sue: What about the ballet?  Have you been to the ballet yet?
• Tom: No, not yet.  I’m going tonight.

We don’t use ‘yet’ with positive statements:

(NOT: He has seen Red Square yet.)

 

We can use ‘just’ to talk about something that happened a short time ago:

• He has just seen Red Square.

‘Just’ comes between the auxiliary verb and the main verb.

 

We can use ‘already‘ to emphasize that the event or action is recent and happened before now:

• They’ve already finished their trip.

 

More irregular past participles:

 

take → taken

do → done

make → made

eat → eaten

see → seen

find → found

speak → spoken

come → come