Present Perfect? Past Simple? Avoid These 6 English Mistakes

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.