Both forms can refer to something before now. The difference is how the speaker presents the time and its meaning. Establish the situation before deciding between a finished past event and a present connection involving experience, a result or a continuing situation.
Compare a finished past time and a present connection
The past simple can describe a completed past event, such as borrowing a book yesterday. The present perfect can describe experience up to now, a result relevant now, or a situation continuing from the past.
This lesson introduces common British English usage. Do not combine the present perfect with a specified finished past time such as yesterday or last Saturday for the same event. An expression such as today needs context: is that time period still open? A time word alone cannot explain every choice.
Use have/has plus a past participle
Use have with I/you/we/they and has with he/she/it, followed by the past participle: have finished, has eaten. Regular participles commonly end in -ed; check irregular forms such as go/went/gone and eat/ate/eaten.
Do not put the past-simple form went after has. Also distinguish has been to, which can describe a completed visit, from has gone to, which can describe someone who has not returned. Start with clear situations before exploring other uses.
Worked example: a library visit and its present result
These original sentences describe the same person but have different jobs. Explain what each one tells the reader.
Use the situation to explain your answer
State the time and intended meaning before choosing a form or correcting the sentence.
Try it yourself
Use the British English patterns introduced in this lesson.
- Last Saturday, Owen ___ (visit) his cousin.
- I ___ (finish) my drawing, so I can show it to you now. Use the present perfect to connect the action with the current result.
- Correct: She has went to the library and has not come back yet.
Show an explained answer
- Visited: last Saturday specifies a finished past time.
- Have finished: I takes have, followed by the past participle finished. Here the focus is the present result: the drawing is ready to show.
- She has gone to the library and has not come back yet. Use the past participle gone after has; the situation says she has not returned.
