Use the perfect verb tenses
key notes :
The perfect tense usually describes completed actions. It describes something that has, had, or will have happened.
The present perfect tense describes something that has happened or has started already. It uses the helping verb has or have.
The aeroplane has arrived at the gate already.
John and Erica have played the violin for five years.
The past perfect tense describes something that had happened before something else. It uses the helping verb had.
We had finished dinner by the time Tim arrived.
The future perfect tense describes something that will have happened by a certain point in the future. It uses the helping verb will have.
The race will have started by noon tomorrow.
Learn with an example
š„Complete the sentence with the correct helping verb or verbs.
- Before last night, Ms Smith_____ never danced the merengue.
The sentence should be in the past perfect tense. It describes something that happened before something else. Use the helping verb had.
š„Complete the sentence with the correct helping verb or verbs.
- The 2008 Olympics marked the first time that an individual athlete from India won_______a gold medal at the Olympic Games.
The sentence should be in the past perfect tense. It describes something that happened before something else. Use the helping verb had.
š„Complete the sentence with the correct helping verb or verbs.
- By the end of the day tomorrow, we_______ made over two hundred paper cranes.
The sentence should be in the future perfect tense. It describes something that will have happened by a certain point in the future. Use the helping verbs will have.
let’s practice!
