I Swear English › Verb Tenses › Present Perfect - Irregular Verbs
How to form the present perfect
How To Form The Present Perfect Simple with irregular verbs:
| 1st Column Compliment |
2nd Column Past Simple Affirmitive |
3rd Column Past Participle |
|---|---|---|
| eat | ate | eaten |
| become | became | become |
To form the Present Perfect Simple affirmative take a subject (I, my friend...) and after that put the auxiliary verb have in the corresponding form of the present simple ( I have..., my friend has...) and then put the past participle, the word from column 3 of the irregular verb list (became, eaten). Put this all together and we have: I have become. My friend has eaten. To make negatives put not after the auxiliary have. I have not become. My friend has not eaten. Note in the negative we continue to use the past participle from column 3 unlike negatives for the past simple. To form questions change the position of the subject and the auxiliary verb have. This gives us: Have I Become? Has my friend eaten? Again note that we continue to use the past participle from column 3 unlike negatives for the past simple. If we wish we can place a question word before our interrogative form. What have I become? How much has my friend eaten? The table below shows the form of the past simple for irregular verbs:
| Affirmative | Negative | Interrogative |
|---|---|---|
| I have eaten | I have not eaten | Have I eaten? |
| You have eaten | You have not eaten | Have you eaten? |
| He has eaten | He has not eaten | Has he eaten? |
| She has eaten | She has not eaten | Has she eaten? |
| It has eaten | It has not eaten | Has it eaten? |
| We have eaten | We have not eaten | Have we eaten? |
| You have eaten | You have not eaten | Have you eaten? |
| They have eaten | They have not eaten | Have they eaten? |
The following video explains how to form the Present Perfect Simple with irregular verbs:
When to use it
- The present perfect with irregular past participles — the meaning is the same, but the third form is irregular. I've seen it. She's done it. They've written back.
- Experience and results using verbs like be, go, do, see, make, take. Have you ever been abroad?
Signal words & time expressions: ever, never, already, just, yet, so far, before
Watch the video lesson
Video transcript
Common mistakes to avoid
| Not quite… | Better |
|---|---|
| I have | I have gone there. — use the past participle (third form), not the past simple, after have. |
| She has | She has eaten lunch. — eat – ate – eaten. |
Frequently asked questions
What's the difference between ‘been’ and ‘gone’?
Has been to = went and came back (She's been to France twice). Has gone to = went and is still there (She's gone to France — she's away now).
Where can I find the third forms?
In any list of irregular verbs, given as three columns: base, past simple, past participle (take – took – taken). The third column is what you need here.
Continue the course
This lesson is part of our free English Verb Tenses course — work through it in order or jump to what you need next.