What is "present perfect"

n. (context grammar English) A perfect tense that expresses action in the past (usually completed) with consequences in the present time.

n. a perfective tense used to express action completed in the present; "`I have finished' is an example of the present perfect" [syn: present perfect tense]

The '''present perfect ''' is a grammatical combination of the present tense and the perfect aspect that is used to express a past event that has present consequences. The term is used particularly in the context of English grammar to refer to forms like "I have left".

The forms are present because they use the present tense of the auxiliary verb have, and perfect because they use that auxiliary in combination with the past participle of the main verb. (Other perfect constructions also exist, such as the past perfect: "I had eaten.")

Analogous forms are found in some other languages and may also be described as present perfects although they often have other names such as the German Perfekt, the French passé composé and the Italian passato prossimo. They may also have different ranges of usage, in all three of the languages just mentioned, the forms in question serve as a general past tense, at least for completed actions.

In English, completed actions in many contexts are referred to using the simple past verb form rather than the present perfect.

English also has a present perfect continuous (or present perfect progressive) form, which combines present tense with both perfect aspect and continuous (progressive) aspect: "I have been eating". The action is not necessarily complete; the same is true of certain uses of the basic present perfect when the verb expresses a state or a habitual action: "I have lived here for five years."