Forming the Present Perfect
Master have/has + past participle: regular -ed forms, common irregular participles like gone, broken, and seen, and the negative and question patterns.
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I ___ the report yet.
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haven't finished
Present perfect negative — 'haven't + past participle': 'haven't finished'.
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___ my keys anywhere?
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Have you seen
Present perfect question form: 'Have you + past participle?' — 'Have you seen'.
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She ___ to the post office.
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has gone
Third person singular — 'has' + past participle 'gone'.
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We ___ five games this season.
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have played
Regular past participle 'played' — 'we have played'.
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Sally ___ her mobile phone.
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has broken
Past participle of 'break' is 'broken' — 'she has broken'.
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Our friends ___ a pet before.
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haven't had
Present perfect negative — 'haven't + past participle had'.
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Has Clive ___ this computer before?
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used
After 'has', use the past participle — 'used'.
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The plane has just ___ — the passengers are getting off now.
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landed
After 'has just', use the past participle — 'has just landed'.
Forming the Present Perfect: Have/Has + Past Participle
Before learners can use the present perfect to talk about experiences or results with any confidence, they need the mechanical form to be automatic: have (or has, for he/she/it) followed by the past participle of the main verb. Getting this form wrong — using the base form, the past simple form, or the wrong participle entirely — undermines every other rule about when to use the tense, because a listener can't judge meaning if the grammar itself is broken. Regular verbs are the easy half: add -ed to form the past participle, exactly as in the past simple (play → played, finish → finished). Irregular verbs are the harder half, since English has dozens of unpredictable participle forms that simply have to be memorised one at a time.
Regular Past Participles
Regular verbs form the past participle the same way they form the past simple, by adding -ed. This means the form itself gives no clue to which tense is being used — that information comes entirely from the auxiliary (have/has vs did).
Irregular Past Participles
Many of the most frequent English verbs have irregular past participles that differ from both the base form and the past simple form: go → gone (not 'went', which is past simple only), break → broken (not 'broke'), see → seen (not 'saw'), use → used. A common error is reusing the past simple form after have/has: 'has broke', 'has went', and 'has saw' are all incorrect.
Sally has broken her mobile phone. (not 'has broke')
Has Clive used this computer before? (regular participle after 'has')
Negatives and Questions
Negatives insert 'not' directly after have/has, almost always contracted in speech and informal writing: 'haven't finished', 'hasn't come'. Questions invert have/has and the subject, with the past participle unchanged: 'Have you seen my keys anywhere?'
Our friends haven't had a pet before.
Have you seen my keys anywhere?
Common Mistakes
✗ She has went to the post office. → ✓ She has gone to the post office. (irregular participle)
✗ Have you saw my keys? → ✓ Have you seen my keys? (irregular participle)
✗ Our friends didn't have a pet before. → ✓ Our friends haven't had a pet before. (present perfect negative, not past simple)
Last updated: · Satori Editorial