Tag: Present perfect

Present perfect continuous
Present perfect continuous

I have covered nearly all the tenses there are on my website. But it is the first time I deal with the present perfect continuous tense. It is not an easy tense, but I think it is not really difficult either.

To help you teach this tense there is an infographic, a worksheet, an audio and an online quiz. I hope you find these useful.

Present perfect continuous – audio

I start the lesson with the following audio file which was created by BBC. My students like these audio files as they are pretty interactive.

You should listen to the file first and then stop the recording when the woman is expected to answers.

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This BBC recording can be freely downloaded at http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/radio/specials/1313_gramchallenge28/

Present perfect continuous – infographic

Display the following infographic and explain how the present perfect continuous tense is formed.

Present perfect continuous infographic

Then explain the usage of the tense.

Present perfect continuous – worksheet

Print the following worksheet. Seat students in pairs and give each student one page from the worksheet. Thus each student has a different picture.

Activity 1: Students look at their pictures and tell their partners whether they have been doing the activities in the pictures. If they say that they have been doing something, their partner immediately asks how long they have been doing it. In this way you ensure that the students listen to each other.

Activity 2: Students complete the exercise with present perfect simple or continuous.

Present perfect continuous worksheet

Present perfect continuous – quiz

The following quiz can help your students practise the present perfect continuous tenseat home. The quiz consists of a simple gap fill exercise. Students should complete the text with either the present perfect simple or continuous tense.The students will be rewarded with a game if they pass. The quiz is in HTML5, so it will play on all desktops and mobile devices.

Present perfect continuous – quiz

Present perfect continuous – Links

You will find a nice explanation of the present perfect continuous tense at British Council site.

Common mistakes – present perfect
Common mistakes – present perfect

Students make a lot of mistakes in present perfect tense. I have tried to collect the most typical ones and I have put them into a mind map and tried to explain the rules there. Moreover, I have added two games to give the students a chance to practice the grammar one more time.
To be able to form the present perfect tense correctly, it is necessary to know the past participles. Students can learn the past participles in the following posts:

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Common mistakes – Mind map

I have collected the following mistakes my students make:

Common mistakes present perfect tense

In the first bubble there is the wrong sentence, then there is the correct sentence and at the end of each branch there is the explanation.
For teaching purposes it might be a good idea to leave the end of the branch empty and ask the students to come up with their own explanation. You can find the mind map here:
Common mistakes present perfect tense - em

Common mistakes – Games

All the mistakes can be divided into three categories:

  1. bad knowledge of the past participles
  2. Not using has
  3. wrong subject in the answers.

If you feel that you have problems with the past participles I recommend the following video:

If you need more practise of past participles and irregular verbs go to Irregular verbs straightforward and Irregular verbs straightforward#2.
To deal with problems 2 and 3 I have prepared two games. The first one is an HTML5 quiz and your task is to answer the tasks correctly. At the end there is a game as a reward for your effort.

Common mistakes – present perfect quiz
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[showmyadsa] The second game is more game like, but it is in Flash and it will work only on your desktop. It is called On Target and your task is to answer the questions and then shoot the bad ducks.

Common mistakes – present perfect On Target

By now you should know the grammar well.

Common mistakes – Share

If you would like to use the games in a classroom with no internet connection you can download the following files. You can share these games on your website too.

Common Mistakes_present perfect (Web)

Common Mistakes_present perfect_ontarget

Present perfect tense – grammar explanation
Present perfect tense – grammar explanation

Some time ago I presented here an infographics on present perfect tense. This infographic contains a lot of interesting information but when I tried to teach the present perfect tense using it, I found out that I failed. That is why I have prepared this new one where I try to introduce the form and the basic usage of the present perfect tense.
To teach the grammar successfully though the students have to know the past participles. You can learn present past participles here. There is mind map and three games to learn 40 of them.

Present perfect tense – mindmap

This mind map shows the form of present perfect tense and the basic usage.
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present-perfect-tense
The simple explanation of present perfect tense

Present perfect tense – RAP

We have used a rap before to explain the grammar. You can see the explanation of the present simple and present continuous tenses here and the rap presentation of past participles here.
Play this rap after reading the graphics above and it should help you memorise the form and the usage of the grammar.

Present perfect tense – practise

And now it is time to practise the grammar. Try the following video. Watch and use the words on the screen to make a sentence in the present perfect tense. 

You can play other games for example here in our post Present perfect basic.

Conclusion

I hope this post helped you understand the usage and form of the present perfect tense better. You can find more grammar posts on our blog. For example, there is a post on Second conditional or creation of questions starting with HOW. Enjoy.

Present perfect _ basics
Present perfect _ basics

Many students do not understand the present perfect tense. Here is an infographic which should make the present perfect tense easier for students to understand.

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Present perfect vs Past simple tense
Present perfect vs Past simple tense
Present perfect vs Past simple infographic

Many students find the difference between present perfect tense and past simple very confusing. To help them I have created the following infographic.

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Present perfect tense
Present perfect tense
Irregular verbs mind map

To learn this difficult tense you first have to learn the past participles. Regular verbs just add the ending -ed but you have to memorise the irregular ones. Here is a mind map which might help you memorise the irregular verbs first

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