Present Perfect Tense, il passato prossimo in inglese: utilizzo e regole

Present Perfect Tense, il passato prossimo in inglese: utilizzo e regole

Tra tutti i tempi verbali inglesi, il Present Perfect è senza dubbio quello che crea più grattacapi, specialmente a noi italiani.

A livello di struttura sembra quasi identico al nostro Passato Prossimo, ma non lasciarti ingannare: non si usa affatto allo stesso modo! È quel tipo di tempo verbale che riesce a trarre in inciampo persino gli studenti più avanzati.

Scopriamo insieme come e quando usare il Present Perfect, così potrai iniziare a fare pratica e a usarlo con la sicurezza di un madrelingua.

Come si forma il Present Perfect

Costruire il Present Perfect è più semplice di quanto pensi: basta usare l'ausiliare have seguito dal participio passato del verbo principale.

              subject + have + past participle               e.g. “They have arrived.”

Nota Bene: A differenza dell’italiano, per il Present Perfect si usa sempre e solo l’ausiliare have.

Dimentica pure il verbo essere (to be), anche per quei verbi che nella nostra lingua lo richiederebbero (come "sono andato" o "è diventato"). In inglese, per formare questo tempo, l'unico protagonista è have!

In order to use the negative form, we add ‘not’ to the auxiliary verb ‘have’:

              subject + have not + past participle         e.g. “They haven’t arrived.”

And to make the interrogative form we invert the subject and the auxiliary verb:

              have + subject + past participle               e.g. “Have they arrived?”

Here are the affirmative, negative and interrogative forms for all the subjects using the verb ‘arrive’:

As you can see, in the third person singular you need to remember to use ‘has’ instead of ‘have’. 

Forma Contratta

In spoken English it’s very common to contract the auxiliary verb ‘have’ to ‘ve in the present perfect. For example,

              “We’ve won the game!”

And ‘has’ is similarly contracted to ‘s. For example,

              “He’s found a new job.”

In formal written English it’s appropriate to avoid contracted forms, so in that case use the complete word ‘have’/’has’. 

The negative form is almost always contracted to haven’t (instead of ‘have not’).

Verbi regolari e irregolari

Come abbiamo appena visto, per costruire il Present Perfect ti serve il participio passato del verbo principale.

Se il verbo è regolare, sei fortunato: formarlo è un gioco da ragazzi! Ti basta infatti aggiungere la desinenza -ed alla forma base, esattamente come fai per il Past Simple.

Ecco qualche esempio pratico:

If the main verb is irregular, you simply need to have learned what the past participle is (and it’s often different to the past simple). For example,

It’s a good idea to focus on learning the most common irregular verbs and the Wall Street English course helps you do that, introducing them gradually during your lessons. Here are the past participle forms of some of the most common irregular verbs:

Quando scende in campo il Present Perfect?

Il Present Perfect si usa in tre situazioni diverse, ma c’è un filo conduttore che le unisce tutte: collega sempre il passato al presente.

Immaginalo come un vero e proprio ponte che mette in comunicazione ciò che è successo prima con il "qui e ora". Non importa quanto tempo fa sia accaduta un'azione; se ha ancora un riflesso o un'importanza nel presente, il Present Perfect è la tua scelta vincente.

Ecco qualche esempio per capire meglio come funziona questo legame:

              “I’ve lost my glasses. Can you help me find them?”

In this situation the speaker probably lost the glasses in the recent past but it’s a problem NOW, and in fact he/she asks for help to find them.

The most important thing to remember about the Present Perfect is that you can’t use it with a finished time expression. For example,

              “I’ve finished the report.”            NOT “I’ve finished the report five minutes ago.”

The moment you say when something happened, use the Simple Past (“I finished the report five minutes ago.”)

Let’s look at each of the three main situations in which we use the Present Perfect. 

1. Unfinished time 

We can use the Present Perfect to talk about an action that happened in a period of time that is not finished, for example – this afternoon, today, this week, this year, in my life.

              “You’ve completed two lessons this week.”

              “I haven’t seen Jim today. I think he’s working from home.”

              “Have you been on holiday so far this year?”

1. Undefined time

The Present Perfect is used to refer to a finished action without a specific time. In this case we often use words like yet, already, still, just, recently, ever, never. 

              “Have the visitors arrived yet?”

              “Marco has just called. He’ll be ten minutes late.”

              “She’s already done her homework.”

1. Unfinished action

We also use the Present Perfect to describe an action that started in the past and continues in the present. With this meaning we use for and since.

              “They’ve lived in New York for eight years.”

              “He’s worked here since 2023.”

              “How long have you been married?”

This use of the Present Perfect is perhaps the hardest for Italian students because in Italian you would use a present tense in this case (Abitano a New York da otto anni). 

Present Perfect vs Simple Past: il confronto definitivo

In inglese, è davvero frequente veder scendere in campo Present Perfect e Simple Past insieme, quasi come se fossero una squadra.

Succede spesso quando iniziamo a raccontare qualcosa usando il Present Perfect per introdurre un'esperienza o un evento (senza specificare quando è successo), per poi passare al Simple Past non appena iniziamo a scendere nei dettagli.

Vediamo subito un esempio per capire come questi due tempi interagiscano tra loro:

We frequently combine the Present Perfect and the Simple Past. For example,

Consigli utili!

Sei nel dubbio e non sai quale scegliere tra Present Perfect e Simple Past? Succede a tutti! In questi casi, la cosa migliore è fermarsi un secondo e farsi queste domande fondamentali:

• Is there a finished time expression? (yesterday, last year, 10 minutes ago) If so, use the Simple Past.
• Is there yet, already, just, ever/never, since? If so, use the Present Perfect.
• If you’re answering a question, was the question in the Present Perfect or Simple Past? Answer using the same tense.

Per esercitarsi:

Complete these sentences using the Present Perfect:

1. I / never / eat Indian food
2. She / work / here / for five years
3. It / just / start / raining
4. They / pay / the invoice / yet?
5. You / already / do / your homework
6. We / live / here / since 2007

Answer these questions about yourself:

1. Have you had lunch yet?
2. How many companies have you worked for?
3. How long have you had your mobile phone?
4. Have you ever been to Norway?
5. Has it rained in your city today?
6. Have you watched a film this month? 

Present Perfect or Simple past? Underline the correct tense:

1. We moved / ’ve moved house last week.
2. They’ve just bought / just bought a new car. It’s really cool.
3. Has Walter emailed / Did Walter email the clients yet? 
4. Are you coming to the cinema with us? – No, I’ve already seen / already saw that film.
5. I’ve done / did the shopping yesterday so there’s plenty of food in the fridge.
6. She’s lived/lived in Rome since 2023. She loves it.