Check out this SlideShare Presentation:
When making my first slidecast, I didn't prepare a script and tried to improvise the words I spoke during the voice recording. 6 minutes is a long time to speak without making any mistakes or taking any pauses, even for me!
When I recorded this slidecast, I had already previously written down everything that I wanted to say.
Here is the script that I used, and I followd it pretty closely.
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---Script for SLIDECAST - PRESENT PERFECT AND PAST SIMPLE 2 --- Adapted Script by EDF@UNPA, 3-Dic-09, Original presentation slides by GRH@UNPA, date unknown
Thank you for listening to our English slidecast. This slidecast is presented by the University of Papaloapan English Department, campus Loma Bonita in Oaxaca Mexico
Today's slidecast is a continuation of last week's. This slidecast is called
PRESENT PERFECT AND PAST SIMPLE 2
What is the present perfect and how is it different from the past simple?
To put it very simply,
The Present Perfect tells us about the past and the present.
In this cartoon we can see that.
United have won the Cup, so it’s theirs now, in the present.
The other team, although sad today, won the cup last year,
The Past Simple tells us about the past, a time which is finished. The other team won last year. This year they lost against United. Last year is in the past. This year they are the losers and United are the winners. This year United have won the cup.
We use the Past Simple (not the Present Perfect) to talk about times in the past such as yesterday, last week,
in 1994, a hundred years ago. A long time ago, etc.
Compare these examples.
We watched United last week. We don't say We have watched United last week.
Which words are talking about the past? -pause- That's right “last week”. So that's why past simple is the correct way of saying this.
Here's another example.
Long ago dinosaurs lived here. NOT Long ago dinosaurs have lived here.
Again, LONG AGO tells us about a time in the past, so we should use Past Simple instead of Present Perfect.
Look at the following examples
Emma has packed her case.(This is to say that her things are in the case now.)
Or this example:
The plane has just landed.
(The plane is no longer flying, Now, it is on the ground.)
And another:
I have just eaten a sandwich
(This communicates many ideas, 1) I ate a sandwich at some recent time in the past, 2) Now, I am not very hungry as I was before I ate the sandwich)
We often give a piece of news in the Present Perfect.
In this example, Andres shares the news of their new purchase with Felipe: “We’ve bought a new car.” (This means that The car is theirs now.)
Then we can use the Past Simple, to give more details such as when and where it happened. In the example, after Felipe asks “What Sort?”, Rebeca says specifically when they bought their Ferarri by saying, “We bought it last week.”
Structures with for, since and last
When using the PRESENT PERFECT,
We can say that something hasn’t happened for a long time or since a specific time in the past.
For example,
We haven’t had a party for ages.
We haven’t had a party since Christmas.
In general, For is used to talk about an amount or duration of time
and Since is used for a specific time in the past.
When using the PAST SIMPLE
We can say that it is a long time since something happened or when was the last time it happened.
Here are some examples.
It’s ages since we last had a party.
Christmas was the last time we had a party
Thank you for listening to this English Slidecast brought to you by the University of Papaloapan. We hope you enjoyed it and now understand better the differences between Present Perfect and Past simple.
To learn more about our University, please visit www dot UNPA dot MX dot EDU, that's www dot U N P A dot M X for Mexico dot E D U
