Grammar
The tense pair that produces more errors than any other in the test. With an error correction exercise.
Present perfect and past simple in IELTS are the pair examiners hear go wrong most often, and almost always in the same direction: a candidate uses the past simple where English needs the present perfect, usually when saying how long something has been true.
The rule underneath is short. The past simple belongs to finished time. The present perfect belongs to time that is not finished, or to which no time is attached at all.
The rules
Six distinctions, and the time expressions that decide them.
Use it whenever the time period is over: yesterday, last year, in 2010, two months ago, when I was a child. If the sentence names a finished time, the past simple is the only option.
Use it when the period runs up to now: this week, today, since March, for six years, so far. The action is in the past but the time frame is still open.
Use it for experience where the moment does not matter: I have visited three countries. As soon as you add when, the sentence switches to the past simple.
Since takes the starting point: since 2019, since I left school. For takes the length: for three years. Both normally sit with the present perfect.
Never combine the present perfect with a finished time expression. I have seen him yesterday is wrong in every variety of English, and it is the error examiners hear most in speaking Part 1.
He has been to Japan means he went and has returned. He has gone to Japan means he is still there. The two say opposite things, so the choice is not stylistic.
Method
Six ways this earns marks under Grammatical Range and Accuracy.
The time expression decides the tense, not the meaning of the verb. Find it, and the choice is usually made for you.
How long have you lived here, how long have you studied English: these come up constantly, and both need the present perfect. Practising them once removes a recurring error.
Numbers have risen steadily since 2010 is exactly right when the chart runs to the present, and it shows range beyond a page of past simple.
The present perfect is often reduced to I’ve in natural speech, and candidates who never contract it tend to drop the auxiliary altogether.
Task 2 rarely needs it. Reaching for the present perfect where the present simple belongs is just as much an error as the reverse.
Read a paragraph looking only at time expressions. Checking for everything at once catches nothing.
Practice
Each sentence contains one error. Choose the correction.
Read the whole sentence before you choose. Every option below is a real form of English, so the question is not which word exists but which one this sentence needs.
This is how examiners see your writing: not as rules broken, but as sentences that do or do not work.
1Correct the error: I have finished my degree last summer.
Finished. Last summer is finished time, and finished time takes the past simple. The present perfect cannot appear with any expression that closes the period.
2Correct the error: She works for the same company since 2018.
Has worked. Since marks a period running up to now, so English requires the present perfect. The present simple describes only what is true today, not the span.
3Correct the error: How long do you study English?
Have you studied. A question about duration up to the present needs the present perfect. This exact question appears in speaking Part 1 for a great many candidates.
4Correct the error: He has gone to Australia twice and enjoyed both trips.
Has been. Has gone means he is still there, which contradicts the rest of the sentence. Has been means he went and came back.
5Correct the error: I live in Wellington since three years.
Have lived for three years. Two errors here, and both are common. Since takes a starting point and for takes a length, and the duration itself requires the present perfect.
6Correct the error: The figure has increased sharply between 1990 and 1995.
Increased. The period is closed, so the past simple is needed. Keep the present perfect for changes that continue up to the present day.
That is normal, and it is the whole problem with grammar study. Recognising an error in a sentence someone has told you contains one is far easier than finding it in your own essay, where every sentence looks correct because you wrote it.
The complete IELTS course on IELTStestONLINE has video lessons on every question type, many more exercises like this one, and your own support tutor you can ask when an answer does not make sense. Take a look at the complete course
Choosing the right option from four is not the same as producing the structure accurately under time in an essay.
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The past simple describes finished time. The present perfect describes a period running up to now, or an experience with no time attached.
No. Yesterday closes the time period, so the sentence needs the past simple: I did it yesterday.
Since takes the point where something started, as in since 2019. For takes the length of time, as in for six years.
Questions about how long you have lived, studied or worked somewhere need the present perfect. This is worth rehearsing, because the question is almost guaranteed.
Yes, when the data runs up to the present. Numbers have risen since 2010 is accurate and adds range to a task otherwise written in the past simple.
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