Simple Past And Present Perfect

Robby Kukurs
Author of the English Harmony System

You speak fluently and feel comfortable with the level of grammar you have? That's the way to go! Actually it's what I preach - once you can speak fluently, you don't have to concern yourself excessively with making small mistakes sometimes.

And to be honest - you probably have noticed some imperfections on my website and the way I write is also different to that of the native English speaker.

However - there's always space for improvement and I have often noticed that even fluent non-native speakers lack one or another simple grammar touch-up that would make them sound way better!

Well, this time I will tell you about the difference between the simple past and the present perfect - a mistake made by many non-native speakers.

To put it simply - it's about when you have to say "I was there" and when -"I've been there".

The basic thing to get is - you use the simple past "I was there" when you mention an actual time. Whether it was back in 2002, in July, or yesterday, or at 5 PM - use the simple past. Even if the time is not mentioned in the speech but we know that we're talking about some particular events - use the simple past.

Typically it would be telling someone what you were doing last night - you don't actually mention the exact time in the story but we all know when the events took place - "I was to a nightclub and met some new friends. I went back home at 3 AM in the morning." You don't say - "Yesterday I've been to a nightclub".

So - stick with using simple past when you're telling about particular events that happened at a certain time.

About present perfect - use it when you're telling about the very fact of the thing that happened but the time is not known.

For example, you can say - "I've been to Canary Islands. It's very nice there!" if asked if you've ever been there. But if your mate asks you - "Hi, so did you go to Canary Islands?" you can't answer - "Yes, I've been there". You've got to say - "Yes, I was there" because you're talking about a particular trip to the islands, not about having been there in general.

Well, this is a small tip, but if you didn't know it - try to use it into your daily conversations. It's going to be the next small step towards better speech!

Happy speaking!

Robby Kukurs
Author, English Harmony System

Are you ready to get on the fast track to spoken English fluency? Check out my English Harmony System HERE!