EXPRESS LIFE EXPERIENCES IN ENGLISH

When talking about a life experience, we can use the present perfect. We do not say when it happened because we are more interested in the experience, than the time or date.

Example: My friend has seen The Good Dinosaur movie.

If we want to say when the experience happened in the past, we use the past simple.

Example: She watched the newest  The Good Dinosaur movies last week.

We often use the present perfect with the words ever and never.
Example: Have you ever fallen in love? No, Sadly I've never been in love.
We can answer these questions with Yes, I have or  No, I haven't

 If we want to say how many times we have done something, we can use the present perfect, or we can add a past simple sentence with an expression of time or place.
Example: Have you ever fallen in love?  Yes, I have actually been in love twice.
                Have you ever fallen in love?  Yes, I have. I fell in love twice with different women when i was in Japan.

 We use the present perfect when things that happened in the recent past are important now
Example: Oh no! I have lost my wedding ring ... My wife will kill me!

We use the past simple to say when the action happened.
Example:  I lost my wedding ring last night.
              
We use the present perfect for situations that started in the past and are still happening now.
Example:  I have not seen my husband this morning.( It is still  this morning)

We use the past simple for situations that started and finished in the past.
Example: I did not see my husband this morning. (It is this afternoon or evening now.)

HOW LONG QUESTIONS

We sometimes use the present perfect  in these questions.
Example: How long have you lived  with your boyfriend?

We talk about how long with the words for (meaning throughout a period of time) and since (meaning from a point of time to now - this can be a date or a past simple phrase)
 Example: We have lived together for three years. 
                 We have been in a relationship since 2002.
                 I have known him since we were children.


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