Present Perfect

We have started studying this tense in class. Present perfect is formed by:

HAVE / HAS + _______-ED or 3rd column of irregular verbs

The verb TO HAVE is in present and it is the auxiliary for this tense such as in these examples:

• She has studied English for three years or She's studied English for three years
  
• He hasn't met her parents up to now
  
• Have they finished yet?

The problem with this tense is to distinguish it from the past tense. The best way is to focus on the reference of time:

• PRESENT PERFECT: anything indiating UP TO NOW such as ever, ust, already, yet, since, for and so on.
• PAST SIMPLE: there is an explicit reference to past such as yesterday, last ___, ___ ago, in ____ and so on. (Check the fotocopy about past simple I gave you in class)

If you need more details and you want to pratise, here you have some good links to do it so:

1. grammar summary with exercises at the end
2. grammar and exercises
   
3. grammar : a bit long but quite complete; exercises at the end
4. an exercise on line
5. in Spanish, just in case you need any help

There is a previous post in this blog about present perfect versus past simple (published in February 2010); click here to see it.

How to practise reading skills

Reading is very useful to enlarge your vocabulary, to fix grammar structures and to improve your English in general. As the library is not available, here you have some links to practise reading on the internet. There are a lot of levels but from my point of view these are the most suitable for you:

• http://www.cdlponline.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=stories&topicID=11: very easy short readings connected to nature and environment. The good point is the audio and the exercises to improve vocabulary. For low-intermediate level.

• http://www.saberingles.com.ar/stories/index.html : Argentinean page with short stories. There is a function to translate the text into Spanish for help. Short variety but useful.

• http://www.rong-chang.com/qa2/: short stories adapted for children, with audio.Not interesting but useful.
  

• http://www.eslfast.com/#A: here you have a larger list of stories (including most of the previous ones) with video. For intermediate students. American English.

• http://www.cuentoseningles.com.ar/: some practice on reading with audio and some of them with activities.

• http://esl.about.com/od/readingintermediate/English_Reading_Comprehension_Skills_for_Intermediate_Level_Learners.htm: a lot of topics. Readings with exercises.

I hope you'll find something to read. See you in class!