Complete the sentences. Use the present perfect – positive or negative. My mum isn't at home now. She __went (go) to the supermarket. So far this month I __saw (see) three films. I'm hungry. I __ havent eaten__(have) my lunch yet. I _saw (see) Helen yet today. Is she at school? Our football team _have won (win) all its matches so far this year. I don't know your boy-friend. I __havent met__ (meet) him yet.

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

Negative sentences

To talk about actions that haven’t happened in recent past, we use negative sentences in Present Perfect.

To make negative statements in the Present Perfect, we use:

have / has + not + Past Participle

SingularPlural

I have not (haven’t) visited

You haven’t visited

He/she/it hasn’t visitedWe haven’t visited

You haven’t visited

They have not visited

Questions in Present Perfect

We use Present Perfect tense to ask and answer questions about actions or events in the past that still have an effect on the present moment.

To make questions in the Present Perfect, we should use the following structure:

have / has + subject + Past Participle

Have you lived here all your life?

Have you met Ted?

Yes/No questions

To create a question that will be answered with a ‘yes’ or ‘no’, use ‘has‘ / ‘have‘ (or ‘hasn’t‘ / ‘haven’t‘ for a negative question) + Past Participle form of the verb.

SingularPlural

Have I visited?

Have you visited?

Has he/she/it visited?

Has we visited?

Have you visited?

Have they visited?

Has she seen the latest James Bond movie?

It’s 11 o’clock already. Have you cleaned up your bedroom?

Have you been in France? No, I haven’t.

Note: In short positive answers to the Present Perfect questions we use only full forms of ‘have’/’has’. In short negative answers we can also use short forms.

Have you read this book?

Yes, I have (No, I haven’t).

Has he ever played golf?

Yes, he has (No, he hasn’t).

We often use the adverb ‘ever‘ when asking questions about events in people’s lives. In such questions we put ‘ever‘ before the past participle:

Have you ever been to Australia?

Has she ever tried your cooking?

Have they ever met each other?  

We often use the adverb ‘yet‘ when asking questions about actions or events that could have just happened:

Have you seen Mary yet?

Have you eaten all apples yet?

Special questions

Special questions (also known as wh-questions) are questions that require more information in their answers. They are made using wh- words such as what, where, when, why, which, who, how, how many, how much.

To make a special question, use the same word order as with yes-no questions but put a wh-word before the verb ‘have’ or ‘has’. The structure is:

wh-word + have / has + [subject] + Past Participle

What famous people have you seen?

What languages has he studied?

How much money has she spent today?

Use ‘How long…?’ to ask for how much time a situation has continued:

How long has she lived in Rotterdam? – She has lived in Rotterdam for six years.

See also:

Present Perfect: Statements

Present Perfect for Unfinished Past

Present Perfect with ‘Just’ and ‘Yet’

Present Perfect for Experience