TENSE TUESDAY: THE PRESENT PERFECT AND QUEEN'S 'BREAK FREE'

Hello and happy Tuesday to you all. Are you enjoying the last few days of winter? 

For today's lesson, we are looking at the use of the Present Perfect to talk about past experience. The Present Perfect is used in many different ways, and one way is to express something that happened in the past but has a connection to today, such as an experience. 

Example 1: I have been to New York.

We don't know when the speaker went to New York, but we know the speaker had this experience in his or her past.

To see a Daily Vitamin lesson from last October that talks about present perfect to talk about past experiences, click on the link below:

https://www.ziggurat.es/es/lecciones_ingles/index.asp?id=2428

Example 2: I have fallen in love. 

With no other context, we don't know when the speaker fell in love, but we know that at some point in the speaker's life, he or she fell in love. However, if the speaker is refering to the recent past, we know he or she is in love now.

A song with a great example of this use of the Present Perfect is Queen's "Break Free," which we listened to when we looked at the phrasal verb TO BREAK FREE in last Friday's Daily Vitamin. Below we have included the lyrics to the song, which uses the Present Perfect in the line "I've fallen in love."

You can listen to this song by clicking on the link below. Thanks for reading, and enjoy this classic song...again!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEKVLjXO2Fk

BREAK FREE (by Queen)

I want to break free
I want to break free
I want to break free from your lie
You're so self satisfied I don't need you
I've got to break free
God knows, God knows I want to break free.

I've fallen in love
I've fallen in love for the first time
And this time I know it's for real
I've fallen in love, yeah
God knows, God knows I've fallen in love.

It's strange but it's true
I can't get over the way you love me like you do
But I have to be sure
When I walk out that door
Oh how I want to be free, baby
Oh how I want to be free,
Oh how I want to break free.

But life still goes on
I can't get used to, living without, living without,
Living without you by my side
I don't want to live alone, hey
God knows, got to make it on my own

So baby can't you see
I've got to break free.

I've got to break free
I want to break free, yeah
I want, I want, I want, I want to break free.

Enjoy the rest of your day!