Perfect Tense

Perfect tense have 3 types:

1.      Present Perfect Tense

Present perfect tense is used for describing a past action’s effect on the present: he has arrived. Now he is here. This hold true for events that have just been secluded as well of for events that have not yet occurred.

Present perfect is formed by combining have/has with the main verb’s past participle form:

·         I have arrived

A negation is produced by inserting not after have/has:

·         I have not arrived

Questions in present perfect are formulated by starting a sentence with have/has:

·         Has she arrived?

The pattern:

(+)I/you/we/they + have+ verb 3 + O

     He/she/it + has + verb 3 + O

(-) I/you/we/they + have + not + verb 3 + O

     He/she/it/ + has + not + verb 3 + O

(?)Have/has + S + verb 3 + O?

Example:

(+) She has written five letters

(-) She hasn’t written five letters

(?) Has she written five letters?

2.     Past Perfect Tense

Past perfect tense is a kind of tense that is used to describe an action or an event that started in a certain time in the past and completed or finished till certain time in the past too; or past perfect tense is used to express an action or an event that had happened before the other event or action happened.

 The pattern:

_­(+) Subject + had + verb III + (complement)

(-) Subject + had not + verb III + (complement)

(?) Had + subject + verb III + (complement)

Example:

(+) We had eaten before they came.

(-) They had not eaten before we came.

(?) Had they eaten before we came?

3.     Future Perfect  Tense

Future perfect tense is used to describe an event that has not yet happened but is expected or planned to happen before another stated occurrence.

The pattern:

(+) Subject + will + have + verb III + complement

I will have finished by 11 a.m

(-) Subject + will not + have + verb III + complement

He will not have gone to school

(?) Will + subject + have + verb III + complement +?

Will you have arrived?