Present Perfect or Past Simple?

 

How do you choose between the Present Perfect and Past Simple?

 

Tense	Usage
Present Perfect	Recent actions and events which are connected with the present
Past Simple	Recent actions and events in finished time periods (last week, yesterday, at the weekend, etc.)

 

Present Perfect:

• Jack has lived in Madrid for 10 years so far (and he still lives there).
• I’ve just finished reading this book, it’s so amazing (this happened recently and now I share my impressions).

 

Past Simple:

• Mary phoned for a taxi and left home at 10 o’clock yesterday (finished period of time).
• The sun shone all Monday (finished period of time).

 

Generally speaking, the Past Simple is used to talk about something that happened at a definite time in the past (yesterday, last week, ago, then, when, etc.).

 

The Present Perfect is used when a particular time is not specified.

 

Past Simple	Present Perfect
I saw a great movie yesterday.	I haven’t seen that movie.
John didn’t climb Mount Everest in 2016.	Alison has climbed Mount Everest twice.
Margaret ate too much last night.	Tom hasn’t eaten curry before.

 

Use the Present Perfect to talk about an event or situation which began in the past and continues now.

In such statements we often use time expressions with since and for, e.g. for a week, since yesterday, for a long time, since 2010:

 

• I love my new office, I’ve worked there for five months already.
• Today we celebrate our anniversary, we’ve been married since 2007.

 

Quite often the Past Simple is used immediately after the Present Perfect. In such cases we use the Past Simple to give more details or information:

 

• – Have you been to Russia?
• – Yes, I have. I visited Moscow last May.

 

• – I’ve lost my watch. I put it on the table and now I can’t find it.
• – Timothy has passed his exam. He got 80%.