The Perfect Tenses in English

Perfect tenses connect two different times and emphasize completion or results. They always use "have/has/had" + past participle.

1. Present Perfect

Use:
✔ Actions that happened at an unspecified time (I’ve visited Japan.)
✔ Actions that continue to the present (She’s lived here for 5 years.)
✔ Recent events with present results (He’s just finished his work.)

Structure:
have/has + past participle

• "They have seen that movie."

Signal Words:
ever, never, already, yet, just, since, for

Examples:

• "I have eaten sushi before." (Unspecified time)
• "We have known each other since 2010." (Continues now)

2. Past Perfect

Use:
✔ An action that happened before another past action (When I arrived, the train had left.)

Structure:
had + past participle

• "She had finished her homework before dinner."

Signal Words:
by the time, after, before, already

Example:

• "They had never met until last week."

3. Future Perfect

Use:
✔ Actions that will be completed before a future time (By 2025, I will have graduated.)

Structure:
will have + past participle

• "By next month, he will have moved to Paris."

Signal Words:
by (next week), by the time, in 10 years

Example:

• "She will have finished the project by Friday."

4. Perfect Continuous Tenses

These emphasize duration (how long something has been happening).

Tense	Structure	Example
Present Perfect Continuous	have/has been + verb-ing	"I have been waiting for an hour."
Past Perfect Continuous	had been + verb-ing	"He had been working all day before he rested."
Future Perfect Continuous	will have been + verb-ing	"By 2025, they will have been living here for 10 years."

5. Key Differences

Tense	Focus	Example
Present Perfect	Result now	"I’ve lost my keys." (I still don’t have them)
Past Perfect	Before another past action	"She had left before I called."
Future Perfect	Completion before future time	"They will have arrived by noon."

Use PROMT.One Conjugator to check every Perfect tense form of English verbs.