Present perfect and Past Simple for Spaniards

Learning a foreing language as an adult is like learning to drive a car. There's lots of different little but important actions to take into account: sit on the seat, fasten your seatbelt, check the rear-view mirrors, the ignition key, wait till the light goes off, turn the key, push the clutch and the gas pedal, you release the handbrake, and long etc of little actions that first are a list of things that little by little become mechanical. By repetition, we stop thinking what and how to do them. Learning English is very similar, from my way of understanding the process. When we build a sentence we have to "think" what we are going to say: present or past, finished or unfinished, is it a he or she or an it or a there or is it plural? is there a time reference, was this for a finished or unfinished action, the object goes immidiately after the verb, not after the time reference, etc. But it all should become more unconscious step by step.



Again, like in many other verb structures in English, we not only have to look at whether the action is finished or unfinished but also if there is any kind of time reference. A finished action does not necessarily refer to a recent past, as many of you often think.

So let’s look at what should be considered:

- finished or unfinished?
- is there or am I using a time reference (adverb or adverbial phrase)?
- is there an impact on the now, the present?
- Is when important? Are we saying when something happened?( = if the action, what happened is the relevant thing to get across, not when it took place)
These are clues to help us choose what verb tense to use, present perfect or past simple.

Let’s look at them in more detail:

a. Finished/over or unfinished/not over action or event or situation:

Time references like for , since, how long, so far, until now, over the last few weeks, recently, these last few days if the action started in the past and it is still valid now, you are still doing it.

Mary has worked in XXX since 2001
She has worked in XXX for 9 years
I have known Sara since we were at university
since I started to work here
for many years.

The tense here, Has worked, have known, indicates that she stills works for XXX . And that she still know Sara (Sara nor I have died and there’s some kind of relationship) That, if now is 2010, she started to work for XXX 9 years ago. *
Starting is one specific moment in the past, from the moment you start, you are/ you work.

The idea of working in a certain place can be expressed in a number of ways DEPENDING ON THE TIME REFERENCE and the TENSE you use.

Now compare it with:
Mary worked in XXX for 9 years

Do we know when she started to work there?
Do we know if she still works there?

Finished action, she doesn’t work there anymore because we use the verb in past tense, which means the working there is finished. Then, what’s the “for 9 years” if we’ve seen that for is commonly used in the present simple? For expresses duration of an action or situation or state. Many Spaniards would say “during”.

So when you want to know the duration of a certain thing you use:
How long have you worked…?
How long did you work…?

(how long are you going to…?)

The most appropriate answer is .. I have been…. For a few hours/a few days/ a week/ two months/ a long time/ ages…or since Monday last week/ 2001, I was a university, etc the specific moment in the past the action/situation started

So we can see that for to express duration can be used for a finished action and for an unfinished action! That is a lot of information here!! So watch out.


b. Past (=finished) action is there an impact or results on the now, the present?

I have washed my hands (so now I can cook, now they are clean and ready to touch food), I have sent the email (so this is done, we can now forget about this)

It’s usually a recent past, but not necessarily. Here we can also use time references like just and already or yet or today, this morning (if still in the morning), this afternoon (if still afternoon),etc


c.


d. Is when important? Are we saying when something happened?( = if the action, what happened is the relevant thing to get across, not when it took place)

I have studied at university and I have done many different jobs so I have acquired many skills. I have also travelled a bit and I have studied photography to make the most of my trips. I have lived in a few countries…. IN MY LIFE and my life is not finished so present perfect, when I did all this is not important, if when was important, I would use the past simple. You can also use before here to justify your experience in sth.

I first went to England as a young teenager, when I completed my secondary school, in 1994 I went to university and after that I moved to Scandinavia to learn Swedish. In 2005 I studied photography. AS soon as I finished, I started to work for an art gallery.

So when you ask about
Have you ever been…? (in your life)
No I have never been

The most fascinating person I have ever met…

You are talking about your life experiences, and your life is not finished! There’s plenty more to do and experience, isn’t there?

Sample sentences:

Llevo días haciendo...
Hace mucho que…Hice (past) / Hago...(present perfect) Watch out, do not "trust your spanish present simple of hago)
Hace muchos días que no vengo a clase.
Hace mucho tiempo que no hablo en inglés
I haven’t spoken in English for a long time /for many days.
Anna has been to Rome. She went there a few months ago (different from Anna has gone to Rome!)
She has worked with msf for over a year
She has just started her English class
Carla and Eric have known each other for years/since they worked together in the field.
etc

As you can see Spanish often uses the time reference at the begining of the sentence, whereas in English we tend to put it at the end (depending on how we word the sentence).

This is not an exhaustive explanation but sorts some of the problems you might have.
hope it's useful!