Reference · module 19
Finished or still going
Everything this module explains, on one page.
for and since
Say how long something has been true.
- for takes a length of time: for two years, for ten minutes, for ages. since takes a starting point: since 2020, since Monday, since I moved here.
- Both go with the present perfect, because the thing is still true: I've lived here for two years. I still live here.
- The present would be wrong: I live here for two years is the mistake almost every learner makes, and it says something no English speaker would mean.
The mistake you are about to make
I live here for two years.
I've lived here for two years.
The situation is true now, so the present looks right — and in most languages it is. English needs the perfect: it started earlier and still holds.
Which past to use
Choose between the two pasts without hesitating.
- The past simple needs a finished time: yesterday, last year, in 2019, when I was young. The time is over and so is the sentence.
- The present perfect needs an unfinished one, or none at all: today, this week, ever, never, already. Or simply no time mentioned.
- So I saw him yesterday and I've seen him today are both correct, and neither can borrow the other's time word.
The mistake you are about to make
I've seen him yesterday.
I saw him yesterday.
The perfect is newer and feels like the better past. It cannot take a finished time: yesterday, last year and in 2019 all demand the simple past.
I've been working
Emphasise how long something has been going on.
- have been plus -ing puts the emphasis on the time: I've been waiting for an hour. The waiting is what matters, not the result.
- Compare I've read three books, which counts results, with I've been reading all day, which counts hours. Both are true and they say different things.
- The state verbs stay simple here too: I've known her for years, never I've been knowing her. know does not happen gradually.
The mistake you are about to make
I've been knowing her for years.
I've known her for years.
Duration asks for the continuous, and years of it even more so. State verbs still refuse: knowing does not happen gradually.
I had already left
Say which of two past things happened first.
- had plus the third form goes one step further back: When I arrived, she had already left. Two past events, and this one marks the earlier.
- had is the same for every subject, which makes this the simplest tense in English to form and one of the hardest to place.
- You only need it when the order is not obvious. I got up and had breakfast needs no help — and is in the order it happened.
The mistake you are about to make
When I arrived, she already left.
When I arrived, she had already left.
Both events are past and already makes the order clear, so one past tense feels like enough. English marks the earlier one with had.