VERB TENSES IN CONTEXT EXERCISE 2 (ESL)

GRAMMAR REVIEW! Simple past vs present perfect — the key distinction

Despite the “mixed tenses” label, this exercise is primarily about one distinction: simple past vs present perfect. Getting this right is one of the most important skills at B1/B2 level. The past continuous appears in a couple of questions too.

Tense	Use when…	Example
Simple past	The action is finished and the time is specified or clearly in the past	I lived in Paris for two years. (I no longer live there)
Present perfect	The action connects to the present; time is unfinished; the result matters now	I have lived here for two years. (I still live here)
Past continuous	An action was in progress at a specific past moment	She was reading when the phone rang.

The single most reliable test: Is the situation still true now, or is it over? If it’s over and the time is clear → simple past. If it connects to now → present perfect.