Present perfect

Introduction
For the case of those who may wish to brush up their usage of grammar in English language. The topic for this lesson is Present Perfect Tense as shown above.

Lesson content
As you may well know a verb is a word used to indicate an action like go, and drink. these are verbs because you can perform the action. an auxiliary verb is a verb used in forming the tenses, moods, and voices of other verbs. as you can see an auxiliary verb helps to bring out a clearer understanding of the main verb.

now the key verbs that we are going to work with are: “stand”, “close”, “kill”, “stop”, and

“clap”.

In order to understand the present perfect tense and when to use it, let us watch this short sketch by adwoa, kofi and antie ama,that was an interesting sketch wasn’t it. well here are a few expressions of the present perfect tenses, in the sketch. when ama returns from the room to find kofi in her place, she asked Kofi to stand up. (action performed)

Kofi insists that Ama closes the door before he stands up. (action performed) so when ama closes the door kofi says “ i have stood up” (action performed) that statement is in the present perfect tense because kofi used the auxiliary verb “have” with the past participle of the verb stand which is stood to form the sentence “i have stood up. this is a present perfect tense. other examples in this sketch to illustrate the present perfect tense are;

1.I have closed the door (action performed) 2.you have killed my friend (action performed) 3.he has stood up (action performed) 4.we have stopped fighting (action performed)

here are other examples:

they have killed the goats

we have stopped the cars;

we have clapped our hands.

each of the groups of verbs has two parts: an auxiliary verb –has or have, and I.a main verb: stood, closed, killed, stopped, and clapped.

(interact here with kids) shall we go over our examples again? kofi stand up. what have you done, kofi? kofi: i have stood up. ama, close the door, please. what have you done, ama? ama: i have closed the door. both of you clap your hands. how do we choose the auxiliary verb “has” or “have”? to do this, remember these four basic rules:

1.the pronouns he, she and it, take “has” examples: he has broken the pen (interact with cast) ama: “she has cooked the yam; kofi: “it has jumped over the wall”

rule 2 singular nouns also take “has” examples: the boy has collected the books the girl has talked to the teacher

rule 3 plural nouns take “have” examples:

the boys have collected the books

>the girls have talked to the teacher

rule 4 the pronouns they, we, and i take “have”.

examples: They have finished their homework We have killed the lion I have signed the form. Look at the examples. are the actions completed or not? for example: Ama, open the door. (ama does so) Good. what have you just done? Ama: “i have opened the door”. Yes, she has opened the door.

One of the characteristics of the present perfect tense is that the action is completed. the sentence she has opened the door implies that the door was closed at some point, but it is no more closed. this is because ama has opened it and it remains opened.

Note also that, the auxiliary verb “have” and “has” are in the present tense. The main verb is in the past participle.Therefore the auxiliary verb and the main verb put together is known as the present perfect tense. We form the present perfect tense with “have or “has and a past participle’. please note that there are two types of verbs regular verb and irregular verbs. to form the past participle of a regular verb add “ed” to the basic form of the verb.

eg. walk + ed = walked close + ed = closed

some verbs do not use “ed” for the past participle. they have forms that are described as irregular. eg. stand…..stood sing……..sung sweep…..swept write……wrote

when and how do we use the present perfect tense 1.use the present perfect tense to describe an action that is just completed. usually the word “just” is

2.used in addition to the tense to show that the action was completed not long ago. eg. ama: he has just stood up. (action performed) she has just eaten her share of the food they have just gained admission to a senior secondary school. they have just repaired the broken bridge my father has just arrived from the city.

3.use the present perfect tense to emphasize that the action is completed or over. the word “already” is often used to show the completion of the action.

eg. I have already shut the door adwoa: amadu has already written to his father for the fees kofi: Our class has already taken a group picture. {{|Summary== Next time, we shall look at other uses of the present perfect tense, and pay particular attention to how it is used with words like “since”, “for”, “ever”, “never”, etc.

good. before we go, shall we present a summary of what we have learnt in this lesson.

1.The present perfect tense has two verbs:

i. the first is either “have or          “has”

ii. the second is a past participle. 2.     have” or ”has” shows the present time. 3 the past participle form of the verb shows that the action is completed.

exercise: here are some exercises. A.read the verbs numbered 1-10. give their present perfect forms.

1.watch                6.lay (eggs) 2.lie(to tell)	7. lay (brick) 3.lie(on a bed)     8. fly 4.give		      	9. ride 5.think              	  10.eat

We are continuing with language study and our topic is more about the present perfect tense. Let us see if we remember some basic facts about the present perfect tense. in the previous lesson, we learnt, that a verb is a word used to indicate an action, or to describe something you can perform or do. we also learnt that an auxiliary verb is a verb used in forming the tenses, moods and voices of other verbs. Therefore an auxiliary verb helps to bring out a clearer understanding of the main verb. do you remember also that there are two kinds of verbs, the regular verb and irregular verb. the regular verbs take “ed” or “d” at the end of the present form, and the irregular ones which require a minor change. each of the groups of verbs when used to form the present perfect tense has two parts: I.an auxiliary verb- has or have and II.a main verb like stood, closed killed, stopped, and clapped. i recall also that i gave you 4 rules on the use of has and have. 1.the pronouns,. he, she and it take has. 2. singular nouns also take “has”. 3. plural nouns take “have” 4. pronouns they, we and i take “have”. Note that a plural verb is always required after you, even when you is singular, referring to only one person. for example you should say, you alone have understood the full dimensions of the problem. (this is referring to an individual). the other example, which is referring to you as a second person plural verb is, ’you both have been a great help to us’. as you can observe we used have the plural form of has. in summary, the present perfect tense has two verbs:

1. the first is either “have” or “has”. have or has shows the present time and the second is the past participle of a verb. the past participle form of the verb shows that the action has been  completed. I hope you were able to do the exercise I gave you in the previous lesson. you were to give the present perfect form of these verbs:

Present tense 1. watch –watched 2. lie (to tell) lied 3. lie (on a bed) lain 4. give- given 5. think-thought 6. lay (eggs) laid {{Summary| The above lesson on Present Perfect shows an in-depth analysis of the usage as the main verbs interact with other words to form good english language expression.}}

{{Assignment| Complete the following sentences: 1.my father hasn’t visited me a.school reopened. b.six months. 2.the party has been on a.three hours b.ten this morning.

3.awuku hasn’t spoken to komlavi

a.more than two months b.last thursday 4.they haven’t had time to do it. a.a long time. b.last may.

5.there hasn’t been such a victory a.years b.hearts trounced, or heavily defeated kotoko in accra. 6.i haven’t eaten any food a. morning b.many weeks 7.no one has written to me a.many months b.i celebrated my birthday 8.you haven’t posted me any money a.last march b.thirty six days now.

B.Change the verbs into the Present perfect tense and underline them 1. Kofi wins the game for the sixth time. 2. The bell goes for the end of the round 3. Azumah knocks his opponent out 4. Abedi pele kicks the ball 5. Goalkeeper Damba throws himself to the wrong side 6.The ball enters the net. 7.The bus runs out of petrol 8.Osei kuffour takes the ball away from renald}}

{{Reading|
 * 1) New oxford dictionary.
 * 2) The Brighter Grammar Book 3&4.}}