Present perfect

The point

Have or has plus the past participle links a past action to now. Use it with ever, yet, already, and for a time that is still open. A finished time such as yesterday takes the past simple, not the present perfect.

Form and use

The present perfect is have or has plus a past participle. It links a past action to now. I, you, we, and they take have. He, she, and it take has. Regular participles look like the past: worked. Learn these irregular participles: gone, seen, done, written, and been. Gone is the participle of go, seen of see, done of do, written of write, and been of be.

Read the full set. I have worked. You have gone. He has seen it. She has done it. We have written it. They have been here. I have not seen it. You have not gone. He has not done it. Have I written it? Have you been there? Has she gone? Yes, I have. No, she has not. Yes, they have. No, he has not.

Ever, never, yet, already, and just sit comfortably here because the time is still open. Have you ever seen it? I have never written it. She has just gone. Have you finished yet? I have already done it. For measures a length, and since names the starting point: for two years, since May. Both reach up to now.

A finished clock time refuses this tense. Yesterday, last week, and in 2019 take the past simple: I saw her yesterday, not I have seen her yesterday. Use the present perfect when you do not name a closed time, or when the result is still true. She has gone means she is not here now. She went names only the finished trip.

Don't translate it like this

Yesterday is finished, so the past simple is the form.

Short examples