the past simple and the present perfect.

I am going to show you when to use a past simple and when to use a present perfect

and more important how to keep them apart.

Take a look at these sentences:

I broke my leg on holiday last year.

I have broken my leg.

The first sentence is in the past simple tense, the second sentence is in the

present perfect tense

First we are going to take a look at how to form a past simple

and how to form a present perfect.

For the regular verbs we take the infinitive form of the verb and add '-ed' for the past simple.

For example

I kicked the ball.

For the irregular verbs:

we use the unique past simple form.

For instance She bought a bike.

For the present perfect we use the auxiliary verb 'to have' and the past participle.

For the regular verbs we make a past participle by adding '-ed' to the verb.

For example I have kicked the ball.

For the irregular verbs the present perfect also uses the past participle

but this past participle has a unique past perfect form.

She has bought a bike.

Now let's have a look at when we use a past simple.

We use a past simple when something happened at a specific time

in the past.

I broke my leg last week.

So it's important that I tell you that it was last week.

For the present perfect time is not important

I have broken my leg. It's not important when it happened.

We also use a present perfect for things that started in the past but have

continued in the present.

For example: I have lived here since 2012.

In the past simple that would be: I lived there in 2012.

Meaning I no longer live there.

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