Tham khảo tài liệu 'intermediate course book - part 10', ngoại ngữ, ngữ pháp tiếng anh phục vụ nhu cầu học tập, nghiên cứu và làm việc hiệu quả | Grammar commentary G3 Present perfect simple page 24 The present perfect talks about something that happened in the past but which has a connection to the present. Mary won t be in today. She s gone to Warsaw for a few days. I ve had a word with him about it and I think he understands the situation better now. We often use this form to talk about how many times something has happened in a period from the past up to now. Again there is often a present connection. I ve seen that film about three hundred times I really can t face watching it again. Isn t there anything else on A Have you ever been to Vietnam B Yeah about twenty times. I ve got family living there. Why Are you thinking of going there The present perfect simple is also sometimes used to talk about how long something has happened from the past to now although it is more common to use the present perfect continuous to do are only a small number of verbs which we use in the present perfect simple like this. I ve always loved spicy food. I ve never liked Alex Ferguson. I ve known him since I was a kid. I haven t always had long hair. It s quite a recent thing for me. Did you notice that these are all state verbs not action verbs That s why we prefer the simple form. One other important thing to remember about the present perfect simple is that when we answer Have you ever . questions we don t normally use the present perfect in the answer very much. We give details in the past simple. The question asks US about our whole life experience from when we were born to now but when we answer we are usually talking about one particular time in the past. A Have you ever been co Latin America B Yeah I have actually. I spent three weeks in Nicaragua a few years ago. Why A Have you ever been to a live game B Yeah quite a few times. I started going maybe six or seven years ago. The last thing I went to was the semi-final the other week. G4 Present continuous page 30 We often use the present continuous to talk
