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Chapter 2: Time Travel

I. Introduction and Overview

The Perfect Tense and the Perfect Continuous Tense are about connecting something earlier with something later.  This relationship is expressed in two ways—Time and Cause/Effect.

  1. Time

    The perfect tense is used to talk about how long something happens.  Or it can tell when a current action began.  It can include everything in between.  Here, the Perfect Tense connects a ‘prior’ (before) action the starting time of an action to a later marker of time or action.
     

  2. Cause-Effect

    The Perfect Tense also connects an earlier action, series of actions or an ongoing action to a later effect in a cause-effect relationship.
     
    The English language has many ways to express a cause-and-effect relationship.  At the beginning of the chapter on verb tenses, we looked at how the philosopher Aristotle was always dividing things up.  He was interested in time and split time in two different kinds of time.  However, he was also interested in cause-effect.  He wanted to find the ‘first cause’ or the ultimate cause of many things in our universe.  So, just like he split time into different types of time, he also split cause-effect into different kinds of cause-and-effect.  This, it is no surprise that the English language has many ways to express the cause-and-effect relationship.
     
    In English, you can, first, express the cause-effect relationship through adverb clauses.  Then, conditional sentences are really about splitting the cause/effect relationship into different kinds of cause and effect.  Finally, you can express cause-and-effect through using the perfect tense.

Exercise

Choose whether the sentences with the perfect tense are used for time or for cause and effect.  Put ‘t’ for time and ‘ce’ for cause/effect.  For some questions both answers may be correct.
  1.        Mary has owned this car for three years.  I like it.
  2.        They have owned this car for 15 years.  Maybe it is time for a new one.
  3.        She had hiked this trail many times in her life, but she still got lost.
  4.        They have called ten times since this morning.
  5.        They have called ten times since this morning.  I wish they would stop calling me.
  6.        By tonight, I will have finished my research paper.
  7.        I have worked on my research paper for three weeks.
  8.        I have worked on his research paper for three hours.  I need a break.

 

Answers show/hide
  1. t
  2. ce
  3. ce
  4. t
  1. ce
  2. t
  3. t
  4. t, ce

1.0 The Perfect and Perfect Continuous Tenses Compared

There are some things that are the same about the Perfect Tense and the Perfect Continuous Tense.  They can both be used to express a time relationship.

The main difference between the ordinary Perfect Tense and the Perfect Continuous Tense is that, with the perfect continuous tense, there is the expectation at the action will continue past the current time that the action is reported.  This will be explained later in greater detail.

The other difference is that while the Perfect Tense can express a ‘cause-effect’ connection, the Perfect Continuous Tense is not usually used for a Cause/Effect relationship.

2.0 How to Write the Perfect Tense

2.1 Use of Participles

Participles are used to form Perfect Tense verbs.  However, it is important to realize that not every participle you see is a Perfect Tense Verb.  Participles actually have many functions.  Only one of them is for the Perfect Tense:

  • They can be used in perfect tense verbs.

    Example

    I have eaten the cake.
  • They can be used as used to form the adjective form of the verb.

    Example

    The eaten cake was good.
  • They can be used to form the passive tense of verbs.

    Example

    The cake has been eaten.

The participle form of the verb can be either regular or irregular.

  • For the regular form of the verb, simply add ‘-ed’, just like the simple past tense.
  • The irregular participle form of the verb is complicated.  There are a few patterns that it follows, but there are many variations of each verb.

Examples

Past, present, and future of the irregular form of the Perfect Tense:
  • I have eaten (past)
  • I had eaten (present)
  • I will have eaten (future)

2.2 Form

The Perfect Tense is formed by starting with the past, present or future form of the helping or auxiliary verb ‘Have/Has’.  Add the participle form of the verb.

Examples

Have/Has + Participle Verb

  • had + worked (regular past)
  • had + eaten (irregular past)
  • have/has + worked (regular present)
  • have/has + eaten (irregular present)
  • will have + worked (regular future)
  • will have + eaten (irregular future)

2.3 Contractions

Contractions can be formed with the Perfect Tense; however, contractions are not possible in some of them.  They are used for speaking or for informal written communication.

Table 2.1 Perfect Tense Contractions
Singular Plural
Present
I have eaten → I’ve eaten
You have eaten → You’ve eaten
He has eaten → He’s eaten
She has eaten → She’s eaten
It has eaten → It’s eaten		 We have eaten → We’ve eaten
You have eaten → You’ve eaten
They have eaten → They’d eaten
Past (not used in writing)
I had eaten → I’d eaten
You had eaten → You’d eaten
He had eaten → He’d eaten
She had eaten → She’d eaten
It had eaten → It’id eaten		 We had eaten → We’d eaten
You had eaten → You’d eaten
They had eaten → They’d eaten
Future (less commonly used in writing
I will have eaten → I’ll have eaten
You will have eaten → You’ll have eaten
He will have eaten → He’ll have eaten
She will have eaten → She’ll have eaten
It will have eaten → It’ll have eaten		 We will have eaten → We’ll have eaten
You will have eaten → You’ll have eaten
They will have eaten → They’ll have eaten

Exercises

  1. Write the Perfect Tense in the Present of the following verbs.  Some are regular verbs, and some are irregular verbs.
     
    1. go:                                            
    2. sleep:                                            
    3. walk:                                            
    4. call:                                            
    5. appear:                                            
    1. have:                                            
    2. tell:                                            
    3. write:                                            
    4. contact:                                            
    5. analyze:                                            

     

    Answers show/hide
    1. have gone
    2. have slept
    3. have walked
    4. have called
    5. have appeared
    1. have had
    2. have told
    3. have written
    4. have contacted
    5. have analyzed

     

  2. Now write the Perfect Tense Verbs in the Past.
     
    1. go:                                            
    2. sleep:                                            
    3. walk:                                            
    4. call:                                            
    5. appear:                                            
    1. have:                                            
    2. tell:                                            
    3. write:                                            
    4. contact:                                            
    5. analyze:                                            

     

    Answers show/hide
    1. had gone
    2. had slept
    3. had walked
    4. had called
    5. had appeared
    1. had had
    2. had told
    3. had written
    4. had contacted
    5. had analyzed

     

  3. Write these verbs in the Future Perfect Tense.
     
    1. go:                                            
    2. sleep:                                            
    3. walk:                                            
    4. call:                                            
    5. appear:                                            
    1. have:                                            
    2. tell:                                            
    3. write:                                            
    4. contact:                                            
    5. analyze:                                            

     

    Answers show/hide
    1. will have gone
    2. will have slept
    3. will have walked
    4. will have called
    5. will have appeared
    1. will have had
    2. will have told
    3. will have written
    4. will have contacted
    5. will have analyzed

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English Grammar for Academic Purposes Copyright © 2025 by Randal Thiessen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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