Forming the Present Perfect Tense

Interrogative

The present perfect tense is common in English. It is used for many different functions. This page will explain the rules for forming the tense with regular and irregular verbs.

Forming the present perfect tense

This tense is formed using two components: the verb HAVE (in the present tense), and the past participle form of a verb. With a regular verb the past participle ends with -ED (just like the simple past). Irregular verbs have a special past participle form that you have to learn. Here are the rules, using the regular verb "arrive" and the irregular verb "eat":
HAVE
Subject
Past Participle
Have
I
arrived ?
made ?
Have
you
finished ?
eaten ?
Has
he
picked ?
forgotten ?
Has
she
painted ?
left ?
Has
it
snowed ?
begun ?
Have
we
started ?
lost ?
Have
they
closed ?
been ?




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