Present Perfect? Past Simple? Avoid These 6 English Mistakes
English with Alex · engVid
0:00 I haven't seen you for a long time or I haven't seen you since a long time.
0:08 Hmm.
0:08 Let's find out.
0:10 Hey, everyone.
0:11 I'm Alex.
0:12 Thanks for clicking.
0:14 And in today's video,
0:15 we are going to make sure that you know how to use the present
0:20 perfect in English and that you avoid some of the most common mistakes.
0:26 We will talk about the present perfect versus the past simple,
0:31 since this is one of the most
0:34 common confusions that people have with this tense.
0:37 And we'll look at some other common mistakes that people make.
0:42 In short, today, I want to help you perfect the present perfect.
0:48 Ready?
0:49 Let's go.
0:50 The first common mistake people make with the present perfect is that they
0:56 think they can still use past time words with the present perfect.
1:00 This is not usually the case.
1:04 For example, I have seen him yesterday.
1:08 Yesterday is a specific time that is finished in the past.
1:13 You can't use the present perfect with phrases
1:17 and words like "yesterday", "at three o'clock",
1:22 "last week", "last month", "on Monday", for example,
1:26 if you are talking about a past finished Monday.
1:31 For specific past times that are finished, we use the past simple.
1:37 So, the correct sentence is "I saw
1:41 him yesterday." Specific past time, past simple.
1:46 Simple?
1:47 Good.
1:47 The next mistake that I often hear from English
1:53 learners is "We are together since 2015." Now,
1:58 here, we are talking about a duration from the past until now.
2:04 The correct form here is "We have been together since 2015" because we use
2:12 the present perfect when we want to talk
2:17 about duration that connects the past until now.
2:21 So, here, we see "since 2015", "since 2015", the correct sentence.
2:28 "We have been together since 2015." Let me ask you,
2:33 "How long have you studied English?" You can tell me that in the comments.
2:40 Here, we have "since" and there is another word that is sometimes confused
2:45 with "since" and that word is "for", not the number four, the word "for".
2:52 So, we use "for" when we want to talk about durations.
2:57 For example, for one hour, for six days, for nine minutes, for one year.
3:04 We use "since" with starting periods or the last time that something happened.
3:11 So, in this example,
3:14 "We have lived here since two years." The correct way to say
3:19 this with the present perfect is "We have lived here for two years." Now,
3:26 you can say, like, "since", for example, 2024, you know, as an example.
3:33 So, you could say a past time period,
3:36 like when something started or the last time something happened with "since",
3:41 but if you mention the time, two days, six hours, nine months, just use "for".
3:48 And this is number three, mistake number three.
3:51 Let's continue with mistake number four.
3:54 This mistake is similar to mistake number one
3:57 because it deals with a specific past time.
4:01 Now, as you know, we use a specific past time with the past simple.
4:08 So, for example, "I have lived in Cairo in 2010." Oh,
4:13 in 2010, that's a finished time.
4:17 I don't live in Cairo now.
4:20 I'm not talking about the duration of time that I lived in Cairo until now.
4:26 So, if it's finished and you are not in Cairo anymore,
4:31 "I lived in Cairo in 2010." Now, I understand why people make this mistake.
4:39 You can use the present perfect to talk about your life experiences.
4:44 So, people think "life experience", "I lived in Cairo", "I have lived in Cairo".
4:52 Yes, okay, you can say "I have lived in Cairo in my life" or "before", "now".
5:00 That's okay.
5:01 But if you mention the specific past time,
5:05 like "in 2010", you can't say this, okay?
5:09 You have to say "I lived in Cairo in 2010".
5:14 Good?
5:15 Awesome.
5:16 Let's go.
5:17 Let's look at this example right away.
5:20 "She has saw that movie before." Ah, we have "before".
5:25 This is a good start.
5:27 We can use the word "before" with the present
5:30 perfect because it connects the past to the present.
5:35 However, "saw"...
5:36 No, no, no, my friends.
5:39 We must use a past participle with the present perfect.
5:44 So, the correct sentence is "She has
5:47 seen that movie before." "See", "saw", "seen".
5:52 The third form of the verb, the past participle.
5:56 The present perfect needs a past participle.
5:59 There you see the structure.
6:01 You can pause the video.
6:03 You can take notes.
6:04 You can write the sentences, the examples, in your notebook.
6:08 I recommend this.
6:10 Okay, that's five.
6:11 We have one more.
6:12 This one is for those of you
6:15 who have also studied the present perfect continuous.
6:19 So, incorrect.
6:20 "I have been knowing her for a long time." The correct form is "I
6:28 have known her for a long time." This is the rule about stative verbs.
6:35 So, some verbs describe states.
6:38 "I know something", "I understand something", "I have something",
6:44 and these stative verbs are not usually used with continuous tenses.
6:51 So, for example, "I have known", right?
6:56 "I have known my wife since 2007 or 2008." One of those.
7:05 "For a long time." "I have known my wife
7:08 for a long time." She doesn't watch my videos.
7:12 It's fine.
7:13 It's okay.
7:14 Okay, so just remember some verbs are stative.
7:17 They describe states and they are not usually used with the present continuous.
7:24 And that is everything for today.
7:27 If you enjoyed this lesson and you want to test yourself,
7:31 test your present perfect muscles, you can do the quiz on EngVid.
7:35 Just click the link that is attached to this video.
7:39 And make sure that you like this video
7:42 and that you share it with your English learning friends.
7:45 I would really appreciate it.
7:47 Well, I have talked for long enough,
7:50 so until next time, keep learning and keep practicing.
7:56 Why am I using my thumbs?
7:59 Okay, I'm dancing.
8:00 Yeah, okay, that's good.
8:02 Bye.