Simple Past vs Present Perfect Tense
Simple past tenses are used to describe an event or actions that happened at a specific time in the past and are now completed. It has no connection with the present. They are formed by adding an ‘ed’ to the end of the regular verbs or in the case of irregular verbs, the second form of the verb is used. In addition, some verbs have the same form in present, past or future tense.
"I went to school yesterday."
"He was awarded the first prize last year."
These two sentences have regular verbs, so simply “ed” was added to the main verbs to convert them into past tense.
"She went to the karate class yesterday."
"I ate a whole plate of biryani last night."
In this case, the past tense of the verb ‘go’ is ‘went’, and ‘eat’ is ‘ate’. Hence the second form of the word is used.
"He put the bill book there a few days ago."
"A dog was hit by his car last week."
Here, both the present and past tense forms of the words are the same.
On the other hand, present perfect tenses are usually used in sentences that refer to any actions or events that started in the past and are continuing or have a relation with the present. It can be identified by the format (subject+ ‘has’ or ‘have’+ past participle form of the main verb.)
"She has trained for this opportunity all her life."
"It has snowed continuously for the last three days."
In conclusion, we can say that both the simple past and present perfect tenses are used to describe things that happened in the past. The fundamental difference between the two is that, the simple past refers to any event that is completed in the past, but the present perfect tense refers to any event that had happened in the past and is still continuing. Thus understanding the difference between the two and using them accordingly will help in effective written and verbal communication. Paying attention to the time expressions and the relevance of the action or event with the present will help to determine the tense to be used.
Advanced use of Present Perfect and Simple Past Tenses:
When the time expression refers to the present like this morning or this evening, both present perfect and simple past tenses can be used. For example, "He didn’t take a rest this afternoon."
In this case, as we took the afternoon as past, simple past tense is used. "He hasn’t taken rest this afternoon." In this case, the afternoon is present and thus present perfect tense is used.
In sentences including a time clause with since simple past verb is used in the time clause and a present perfect verb is used in the main clause of the sentence.
"Since he came back from his foreign tour, he has vowed to buy a Lamborghini."
"Since his father died, he has taken over his business."
In sentences that include, it/this/that is followed by the first time, the present perfect tense is used in the next clause.
"That’s the first time, I have seen her in tears."
"It is the first time, she has not eaten ice cream in months."