Present Perfect-Life Experiences

Question

HelloI've learned that one of the uses for the present perfect, is when we're talking about life experiences. So, this is what I don't understand, what's the definition for a life experience? For me everything is a life experience.Thanks

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

makaaySo, this is what I don't understand, what's the definition for a life experience? For me everything is a life experience.

OK. So maybe that description of the usage of the present perfect tense doesn't quite explain it for you in an entirely satisfactory way.

There probably is no description that can be made that explains it really well. You may just have to see how it is used over and over again until it finally makes sense to you.

I assume you already know that the present perfect is used when you're talking about an event without thinking about a definite time that it occurred, and the past simple is used when you're talking about an event from the point of view of a definite time when it happened.

You might want to consider that the present perfect records your "life experiences" in the sense of what experiences might be written in your diary. Suppose you have been keeping a diary all your life. You have entries for every "life experience" you have ever had. The entries record your routine for each day. Each is an event that took place at a definite time, so each is expressed in the simple past. Here is a sample of some entries you might have in your diary:

May, 1987. Saw the movie "Gone Away with the Whirlwind".
July, 1987. Hiked to the top of Mount McGinty.
January, 1989. Had a picnic with my cousin Joanie.
April, 1989. Stayed home all day because it rained.
May, 1996. Rode a train to Spokane. It was my first train ride.

Now it's 2009. You're having a conversation with someone. They want to get to know you, so they ask, in effect, what is in your diary, like this:

-- Have you ever seen "Gone Away with the Whirlwind"?
-- Yes. I have seen that movie. [Yes. That event is written in my diary.]
-- Have you ever traveled by train?
-- Yes. I've taken the train. In fact, I have traveled to Spokane by train. [Yes. Riding a train is listed in my diary.]
-- Have you ever done any hiking?
-- Yes. I have even hiked to the top of Mount McGinty. [Yes. The experience of hiking is in my diary.]

Note how every sentence in the dialog above is in the present perfect. No mention is made of when these events took place -- only that they took place. This is thinking of events independently of the time they occurred. If you add information about when these things happened, you switch to the simple past, like this:

-- Yes. I have seen that movie. I saw it in 1987.
-- Yes. I have hiked quite often. In fact, I hiked to the top of Mount McGinty in July of 1987.
-- Yes. I've travelled by train. The first time I traveled by train, I went to Spokane.

They are still "life experiences", even in the simple past, but here they also become "chronologies", or "narratives", or, in simpler English, "stories" that take place in a certain order at definite times, not just isolated "life experiences" that have or have not happened.

CJ

Makaay · Answer

Thank you very much CJ, this is the best explanation I've ever had, these examples are great.

Anonymous · Answer

To me a life experience would be something that I have done that the person I'm talking to is unlikely to have ever done, or most likely will have only done a very few times.

Example: Have you ever gone zip-gliding in the amazon?

Present Perfect-Life Experiences

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