Listen to this interview and pay attention to the use of Present Perfect Simple and Past Simple.
Video de Real English alojado en Youtube
The first questions are in the past simple. Then the Present Perfect comes.
2.1. I lived abroad
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Reflexiona
Look at these sentences:
| PAST SIMPLE | PRESENT PERFECT SIMPLE |
| I lived in Liverpool for four years. | I have lived in Liverpool for four years. |
They look very similar, but there is a big difference in meaning. What is it?
Importante
Let's have a look at the difference between the Present Perfect Simple and the Past Simple in more detail.
So what is the difference? Good question! Let's see some examples:
|
PAST SIMPLE
|
PRESENT PERFECT SIMPLE |
| My grandfather visited two countries. | Paco has visited two countries. |
|
This sentence implies that my grandfather is dead so he can't visit any more countries |
Here Paco has visited two countries so far but his travelling might continue in the future (or not). |
|
You can say a specific time, for example, 'last year'. |
You can only say a specific time if you use 'since' or 'for'. |
|
Typical words with past simple: yesterday, last night, last year, at that moment, in 1990, etc. |
Typical words with present perfect: so far, up to now, just, still, already, yet, for a while, ever, never, once, many times, etc. |
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It wasn't so difficult, was it? In the next section, you are going to hear another song! Let's go!