충북대학교신문방송사

Welcome back to school everyone! How was your break? I had a great time. In English we have all kinds of experiences. It's important to learn how to talk about them using different kinds of attitudes. One attitude about the past is just based on our experience. If I want to know if my friend has seen a particular movie, I use the present perfect. For example, I can ask, "Have you seen the hobbit?" In this case, I want to know if my friend has had an experience or not. The present perfect is used to list our experiences that we have had up to now in my life. In my case, I have lived in Spain, I have visited the White House, and I have seen Psy in concert. Notice how these sentences are simply explanations about my life experience. However, then you might want to find out some details about my interesting life experiences. To get details, you can use WH – questions. For example, "WHEN did you see The Hobbit?", or "WHAT did you do at the White House?", or "WHERE did you go to see Psy?"
Do you want to know my answers? To give you details, I have to use the simple past. For example, "I SAW the hobbit last weekend. At the White House, I LOOKED for Barack Obama. I WENT to the Psy concert in Cheongju." This difference between present perfect and simple past is very important. You can use different attitudes about the past to provide different kinds of information. In general if you want to provide details about past experiences, you use the simple past. If you want to ask somebody about an experience or to talk about your own experiences, use the present perfect. In my intermediate English classes, I explain that if you can master the difference between the present perfect and the simple past, you are on your way to being a fantastic storyteller in English! If you want to improve your ability to use these tenses in English, why not sign up for a class at the Center for International Affairs? You'll learn to use these tenses and more!