Have You Perfected the Perfect Tenses?

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Mindmap

It comes from the Latin word perfectum, which means "complete."

Present Perfect

I have seen Star Wars.
three pieces of information:

• the event is finished:
• the exact time of the action is unknown or unimportant.
• the experience of seeing Star Wars has some effect in the present

the difference between the simple past and present perfect:
when there is a specific time:

• "I saw Star Wars last night."
  unknown or unimportant:
• "I have seen Star Wars before."
• "I have seen Star Wars in the past."
• "I have seen Star Wars three times."

Past Perfect

The past perfect describes an activity that was finished before another event in the past.

1. first action: had followed by a past participle verb
2. second action: use before or by the time followed by the simple past verb
   关于 first action 和 second action
   这里first action 对应的是先完成的动作，而不是sentence中先出现的
   如果先完成的action在前面说明，那么就要用 before or by the time + second action
   如果先完成的在后面，before 放在句子后面
   问：before 总是跟着 first action？

• She had already had a baby before she graduated.
• The soldier wasn't scared because he had already been in battle before.

Future Perfect 05:33

Use the future perfect when you know one future action will be completed before another future action.

Words in This Story

word	meaning	出处	含义	关联

勘误

• Something that did not happen in the past - Present Perfect

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