Using Perfect Tenses

The perfect tenses are past perfect, present perfect, and future perfect. They are formed by adding a form of have to a verb.

The past perfect expresses an action completed before a time in the past. The future perfect tense anticipates an action that will be completed by a time in the future. The present perfect tense expresses an action or condition that has occurred in the past and may occur again.

The following examples show the uses of the perfect tenses:

Arthur had flown to San Francisco.
Barbara has flown to San Francisco.
Curt will have flown to San Francisco.

Sometimes tense alone is not enough to locate the action of a sentence precisely in the past, present, or future. If tense alone does not seem to locate the action precisely enough, add a word or phrase to make the time clear.

Arthur had flown to San Francisco twice before he was four.
Barbara has flown to San Francisco every year for ten years.
Curt will have flown to San Francisco by this time next year.

Click the correct sentence. Mrs. Coulter’s family has moved four times by the time she was three. Mrs. Coulter’s family had moved four times by the time she was three.