Lesson 48

Introduction to the Present Perfect

Lesson contents:

- First lesson on the Present Perfect
   with review of verb tenses used
   in lessons 1 - 46
- New Vocabulary: 14 new items,
   including mysogyny, for example
- British and N. American differrences
  in the use of this tense

Always watch the video without subtitles first in order to train your ears! It's a good idea to watch several times until you feel the "music", before watching the version with subtitles. Your pronunciation will be much better if you follow this rule.

Exercises for this lesson:

• Vocabulary: prepare for the video
• Dictation exercise: Ann
• Dictation Exercise: Jim and Robin

How to do the lessons:

1. Watch the video without subtitles.
2. Do all the Exercises.
3. Come back to this page.
4. Watch the video with English Subtitles. Use the Pause button. People speak fast!

Problems? See general support, recording support or ask your question here.

Introduction to the Present Perfect
Watch this video, then click on Exercise 1

Same video with Precise Subtitles
Do the exercises before watching this video with subtitles.

Real English®

Teachers:

There are 2 interviews in this clip. First we meet a couple - Jim and Robin. Robin (pictured on the left, is very "special". No matter what you think of her, you have to admit that she's certainly vivacious, and sometimes very funny.

As you will also see here, Americans DO use the present perfect. They're simply not systemaric about it as the British are. For example, Americans say Did you eat yet? and Have you eaten yet? interchangeably. There are many examples of these differences:
British English: He has just gone home.
N. American English: He just went home. or He has just gone home. Both are correct for Americans, but there is only one correct version for the British.

In the 2nd interview, while speaking about the morning which had not yet finished at the time she was filmed, Ann, also an American, could have said "We shopped", but she says "We have shopped", providing us with a relatively rare example of the use of the American Present Perfect. Sometimes Americans seem to add the "have" or "has" for emphasis, not in an effort to speak correctly in the Brirtish sense.