Present Perfect Tense

     IV .  Present Perfect Tense
             
The present perfect is a grammatical combination of the present tense and the perfect aspect, used to express a past event that has present consequences. An example is "I have eaten". Depending on the specific language, the events described by present perfects are not necessarily completed, as in "I have been eating" or "I have lived here for five years."
The present perfect is a compound tense in English, as in many other languages, meaning that it is formed by combining an auxiliary verb with the main verb. For example, in modern English, it is formed by combining a present-tense form of the auxiliary verb "to have" with the past participle of the main verb. In the above example, "have" is the auxiliary verb, whereas the past participle "eaten" is the main verb. The two verbs are sometimes labeled "V1" and "V2" in grammar instruction.


Auxiliaries

In modern English, the auxiliary verb for forming the present perfect is always to have. formula:subject + has/have + 3rd form of verb
  • I have eaten some food
  • You have gone to Russia
  • He has arrived in Russia
In many other European languages, the equivalent of to have (e.g., German haben, French avoir) is used to form the present perfect (or their equivalent of the present perfect) for most or all verbs. However, the equivalent of to be (e.g., German sein, French être) serves as the auxiliary for other verbs in some languages such as German, Dutch, French, and Italian (but not Spanish or Portuguese). This was also the case in English, but is now archaic or obsolete except in some fossils ("They are gone", "He is risen", etc.). Generally, the verbs that take to be as auxiliary are intransitive verbs denoting motion or change of state (e.g., to arrive, to go, to fall).

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