EnglishCafe
 

previous page EnglishCafe Top following page







3.1. The main usage of the present perfect form
The present pefect form (PrPF) expresses the event occurred in the past as well as the past tense does. But it does not mean the separation from the present, it has the relation between the event and the present. See the following figure.

(1)



The red circle means the past event which is the same as the past tense. PrPF puts the blue line like the above. This line means the speaker's feeling. The event is occurred in the past certainly, but the speaker has mental contact with the present.

The usage of PrPF can be classified into the three as follows.

(2) Completive and Resultative
(3) Continuous
(4) Experiential

The usage is the three, but we can consider that PrPF's meaning is only one. That is, "the speaker treats the past event from the presen." We explain them in each section.


Time sensation cut






previous page EnglishCafe Top following page



Copyright (c) EnglishCafe : Unapproved printing of the text and figure in this site is forbidden.