Present Perfect Tense vs. Past Simple: Tom’s Story (A comical story of Tom, the ESL student - Video)

Follow Tom in his everyday life and teach the present perfect tense by contrasting it with the past simple to pre-intermediate level ESL learners. If you love our videos, please support us at Patreon: WEBSITE: For more creative, engaging and interactive animated grammar teaching videos, please visit our website. For the “No Music” version of this video, please click here: Title of English / ESL Video: Tom’s Story Target English Grammar: Present Perfect Tense vs. Past Simple Tense Student Proficiency Level: Pre-intermediate level grammar Suggested Courses: General English Instructions: – Play the video in class after delivering a warm-up activity first. – Pause the video whenever the narrator asks students a question to give students time to answer. For example, after elicitations and concept checking questions (CCQs). Summary of English Grammar: Present Perfect Tense vs. Past Simple Approximate chronological order: Rules and Explanation: Functions: – Past events – Recent past events – Unfinished states Timeline: Past Events – The present perfect simple tense indicates that something happened in the past. – We don’t know when it happened. We just know it happened in the past some time between the day that you were born until now. Visual Representation of Example: – Example: I’ve been to Australia. – This means some time in the past, you went to Australia. – been vs. gone: Gone means you went there, but you’re still not back yet. Been means you went there, and then you left. – We often use never to emphasize negatives and ever to emphasize questions. – Example: Have you ever been to America? (No, I’ve never been to America.) Recent Past Events: – Example 1: Mum, have you finished cooking dinner? – Example 2: Yes boys, I’ve made your favourite! – We can also use just, yet and already for emphasis. – Example 1: Mum, have you finished cooking dinner yet? – Example 2: Yes boys, I’ve just made your favourite! Unfinished States: – Example: We’ve known each other for two weeks now. – We use for for a period of time. – Examples: for an hour, for two days, for the last 10 years. – We use since for a starting point in time. – Examples: since last night, since three months ago, since the 1980s. Timeline: Unfinished States – We’ve known each other for two weeks now. – The boy met the girl at a certain point in the past, and they still know each other in the present. – They have known each other for two weeks, which means they met two weeks ago. Simple Past: Function – To talk about finished events where the time is known. – Example 1: How was your date honey? – Example 2: We broke up… – In these examples, although the time is not mentioned, both the boy and his mother know the time of the date. – We can use just for emphasis that an event recently happened. – Example: We just broke up. Form: Statements: Subject have/has ( never/just/already) past participle … ( for/since, time word, yet) I ‘ve been to Australia. I ‘ve never been to America. I haven’t made dinner yet. We ‘ve known each other for two weeks now. Open Questions: Wh-/How have/has subject past participle … ( for) ? How long have we known each other for? *Wh-/how question words and for are for open questions. Yes/No Questions: Have/has subject ( ever) past participle … ( yet, time word) ? Have you ever been to Australia? Have you finished cooking dinner yet? *Ever, yet and time words are for yes/no questions. Summary