Perfect Tense Examples

Perfect tense falls under the four subcategories of tenses in English. Perfect tense talks about those actions that are already done/completed when we are speaking about them. For example, “Ira had gone to the movies.” Here, ‘had gone’ refers to the fact that Ira already went to the movies in the past, and the action is already completed while we are speaking about it. Let’s have a look at the three types of perfect tenses with examples on the basis of their time of completion.

Table of Contents

• Present Perfect Tense with Examples
• Past Perfect Tense with Examples
• Future Perfect Tense with Examples
• FAQs on Perfect Tense Examples

Present Perfect Tense with Examples

Present perfect tense refers to activities that are already done/completed in the immediate past, i.e. just finished/completed. It can be formed in the following way:

Subject + Have/Has + Past participle form of the verb + the rest of the sentence

Examples of present perfect tense are as follows.

• Raj has just gone out to the market.
• The clock has just struck twelve.
• We have gone for a walk.
• Toby has eaten all the cookies. (i.e. none is left for you to eat)
• My mother has cut her finger. (i.e. now it’s bleeding)
• I have done all my homework.
• I have been in Pune for one week.
• Julia has completed her degree from Delhi University.

Past Perfect Tense with Examples

Past perfect tense refers to an event/action that has already happened/been done before a certain/specific time in the past. Sentences in the past perfect tense can be formed in the following structure.

Subject + Had + Past participle form of the verb + the rest of the sentence

Here are some examples.

• They had built another house.
• I had worked with Sheldon for five years.
• They had shifted to New York City last summer.
• Leonard had bought a camera for his 25th birthday.
• The children had drawn beautiful pictures.
• I had learnt French in my last year of college.
• My brother had played this game before.

Future Perfect Tense with Examples

Future perfect tense refers to/denotes those events/activities that will be finished/completed by a particular/certain time in the future. It can be formed in the following way:

Subject + will/shall + have+ past participle form of the verb + the rest of the sentence

Some examples of sentences using future perfect tense are given below. Check them out.

• George will have married Tessa by then.
• The baby will have slept by then.
• By the end of this year, I will have worked here for two years.
• I will have completed my assignment by dinner time.
• My wife will have bought the cake before tomorrow morning.

Explore speech topics and the article on English Language for more topics.