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Old Nov 16th, 2009, 08:04 pm
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Default Re: Present perfect

This question recurs everywhere. The perfect tenses (present perfect, past perfect, present perfect progressive, future perfect) are more recurrent in British English. It is not the easiest thing to explain. Through repeated practice students will know the difference.
But we use the past simple when an action ended in the past and we use the present perfect when an action started in the past but may still have relevance to the present. By the way there are over 7 reasons why we use the present perfect. In the sentence above "She has lived in different places in the last ten years." This sentence is relevant to the present in that this habit of living in different places has not ended. She is currently living in a new place after moving in from some other place. Sometimes the present perfect suggests that the action may still go on in the future - enter present perfect continuous.
But let's stick to the present perfect vs. Past simple.
We also use the present perfect in similar sentences using FOR or SINCE. For example : I have lived abroad for 10 years.
I have lived in London since 2000.
I have always wondered why it is called PRESENT PERFECT when it talks about the past. The reason is that an understanding of the past action can perfectly define the action of the present. There is a present perfect vs. Past simple board game on this page to practice the differences.
Check out this interactive wheel game to practice present perfect vs. past simple
More tenses vs. tenses games can be found here
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