Present Perfect / Past Simple & Present Perfect Continuous / Past Continuous 

Present Perfect

This tense shows results or experiences that matter now. 

✅ Achievements & experiences:
💻 I have accomplished two Java courses.
📚 I have read ten books this year.

✅ Recent actions with a present effect:
👶 Sarah has had a baby! (It happened recently, and now she’s a mom!)
🤖 Someone has invented a chip for learning languages! (Let’s imagine this miracle happened and we can see the result of it.)

🕰 ❌ No specific time is mentioned! The focus is on now!

Past Simple

Past Simple is like your photo album—snapshots of things that happened at a specific time in the past.

✅ Finished actions, no connection to now:
🐻 Did you collect Kinder Hippos when you were a child?
🎄 Last Christmas, I gave you my heart…

🕰 Uses time markers like:
📅 yesterday, last week, several days ago…

Past Continuous

Imagine you’re watching a movie flashback. Past Continuous paints the background action that was happening for some time in the past.

✅ Longer actions in progress in the past:
💭 Ten years ago, I was struggling to speak English fluently.
📖 Last summer, I was reading a book for two hours every day.

🕰 Uses phrases like:
⏳ for two hours, all summer, from five to seven…

Present Perfect Continuous

This one is like your activity tracker—it focuses on how long something has been happening until now.

✅ Ongoing actions that started in the past & still continue:
👩‍🍳 I have been cooking all morning. I’m so tired!
🏃 I have been running around the city all day!

❓ Why are you sweaty?
💪 Because I have been working out!

Quick Recap:

📌 Present Perfect → Result or experience (What have you done?)
📌 Past Simple → A finished action (When did it happen?)
📌 Past Continuous → A long action in the past (What was happening?)
📌 Present Perfect Continuous → A long action leading to now (How long has it been happening?)