Pastの例文や意味・使い方に関するQ&A

「Past」の類語とその違い

Q: past indefinite, present perfect と past perfect. when should i use them? thank you for helping me! はどう違いますか?
A: Past indefinite (also called the "simple past") is the normal past tense we usually think of:
- I went to school.
- I ate food.
- I watched TV.

Present perfect is used to talk about the past, but it is used to talk about something that is unfinished (it is still happening).

Present perfect is "has/have + participle":
- I have gone to school.
- I have eaten food.
- I have watched TV.

The difference between past indefinite and present perfect is this:
- "I went to school" = either "I am still in school" or "I went to school this morning but I am home now."
- "I have gone to school" = "I am still in school. I will go home in a few hours."

For more tangible verbs (verbs that you can picture in your head), you tend to use it with an adverb that indicates something still happening. These adverbs are, for example, "today," "this week," "this month," etc.
- "I ate food" = "I ate food three hours ago. I am not eating food right now."
- "I have eaten food today" = even though it means "I ate food and I am not eating right now," the word "today" makes this sentence something that is still continuing.

- "I watched TV" = "I am not watching TV right now."
- "I have watched TV this week" = "I am not watching TV right now" but the word "this week" makes it something that is still continuing.


Past perfect is used to talk about something in the past that happened before another thing in the past.

Past perfect is "had + participle":
- I had been to school.
- I had eaten food.
- I had watched TV.

Basically, you can use it like this:
"I had eaten food before I went to school."

So "I went to school" is already in the past, but "I ate food" before that, so "I ate food" became "I had eaten food."

I hope it's not too confusing. If you need me to clarify anything, I will be happy to.

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