Present Perfect Simple or Past Simple?

1. Present Perfect
or Past Simple?

2. This is Timmy. He is fifteen
years old.
Yesterday Timmy visited his
grandmother.
He loves his grandmother.
Timmy has visited his
grandmother every
weekend since he was a
child.

3. When did Timmy visit his grandmother?
In the past, present or future?
Is it yesterday now?
Is yesterday finished or unfinished time?

4. The Past Simple
Use the PAST SIMPLE to talk about actions in the
past, finished time.
Past Future
Present
“Yesterday Timmy visited his grandmother”
Start visit End visit

5. “Timmy has visited his grandmother
every weekend since he was a child.”
Is Timmy visiting his grandmother now?
Did he visit in the past or present?
Will Timmy visit again in the future?
How old is Timmy?
Is he a child?

6. The Present Perfect
We use the PRESENT PERFECT SIMPLE to talk
about actions that started in the past, continue to
the present and maybe into the future.
Past Future
Present
Timmy is a child.
He starts visiting his
grandmother
Timmy is 15.
He continues visiting
his grandmother
We think Timmy will
continue to visit his
grandmother in the
future.

7. Today Timmy went to school.
Now he is doing his Bell
homework. Timmy has
studied English with Bell for
three years.
Which action is finished?
Which action is unfinished?

8. Finished time Unfinished time
Yesterday
Last week
Last month
Last year
Today
This lesson
This week
This month

9. For & Since
We use “for” and “since” with the Present
Perfect Tense.
Use “for” to talk about an amount of time,
for example, three years, one week, five
minutes.
Use “since” to talk about a fixed point in
past time, for example, July, Christmas, I
was a child