Study materials
Listen to a short exchange. It starts in one tense and by the third line has moved into another.
Have you ever been to Prague?
Yes, I have.
When did you go?
I went in 2019 and stayed for a week.
Nobody made a mistake. The first two lines are about a fact of a life, the next two about one particular trip with a date. That is the whole topic.
The border runs along the word "when"
There is one rule and it is short. The moment a time is named or asked about, the Past Simple is needed. As long as no moment is there, the Present Perfect works.
I've lost my key.
I lost it yesterday.
She's finished the report.
She finished it an hour ago.
The Perfect opens, the Past Simple tells
In real conversation the two tenses almost always come in a pair. The first puts the subject on the table, the second unfolds it.
Have you seen the new film?
Yes, I watched it on Friday. It was great.
I've been to Japan twice.
The first time I went with my brother.
Notice that the conversation never goes back into the Perfect. Once you are in the details, you stay in the past tense until the story ends.
Is the period still open or already closed
The other side of the same border. Look not at the action but at the stretch of time it happened in: has that stretch finished or not.
I've had three meetings today.
I had three meetings yesterday.
The same logic changes what a sentence about a job actually says, and the difference is worth feeling.
She's worked here for five years.
She worked here for five years.
The words that point the way
Each of the two tenses has its own set of companions. They do not decide for you, but they nearly always point the right way.
| Present Perfect | Past Simple |
|---|---|
| ever, never | yesterday, last week |
| just, already, yet | two days ago, in 2019 |
| so far, today, this week | when, then, at six |
One warning. This morning belongs to both: before noon it pulls the Perfect, in the evening it takes the Past Simple. So the meaning always has the last word, not the marker.
The mistakes everyone makes
The first is joining the Perfect to a named moment.
I've seen him yesterday. → I saw him yesterday.
The second is asking about a moment in the Perfect.
When have you been there? → When did you go there?
The third is taking the Past Simple where today's consequence is the point.
I lost my passport, I can't fly. → I've lost my passport, I can't fly.
All three are caught by one question. Is a moment named in the sentence? If yes, it is the Past Simple. If not, look at the consequence: if it is alive now, it is the Present Perfect.
Try it right now
Take any trip of yours and describe it in English in two sentences.
Start the first with I've been to and give no date at all. Start the second with I went and add the year, the city and one detail. You have just crossed the border between the two tenses.