Definition:
An aspect of the verb expressing an action that began in the past and which has been completed or continues into the present. The present perfect is formed by combining has or have with a past participle. See also: The Present-Perfect: Using "Has" and "Have" with the Past Participle.
Examples and Observations:
- "History has remembered the kings and warriors, because they destroyed; art has remembered the people, because they created."
(William Morris) - "I have tried to lift France out of the mud. But she will return to her errors and vomitings. I cannot prevent the French from being French."
(Charles de Gaulle) - "Never in any case say I have lost such a thing, but I have returned it. Is your child dead? It is a return. Is your wife dead? It is a return. Are you deprived of your estate? Is not this also a return?"
(Epictetus) - "Someday when peace has returned to this odd world I want to come to London again and stand on a certain balcony on a moonlit night and look down upon the peaceful silver curve of the Thames with its dark bridges."
(Ernie Pyle) - "If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them."
(Henry David Thoreau) - "The prime factor which is felt to influence the use of the present perfect over the simple past is a writer's feeling that a past action is relevant to a particular current situation. This situation is to be found in the context of present perfect statements and would most naturally be expressed in the present tense. Two conditions for the use of the present perfect are then seen to be: 1) the existence of a situation to which past actions can be related, and 2) the expression of this situation in the present tense."
(Raymond H. Moy, "Contextual Factors in the Use of the Present Perfect," TESOL Quarterly, September 1977)
