When to use the present perfect, part 2 - B1

Use the present perfect when you want to talk about your life experience. In this case, what is really important is what happened and not when or where it happened. If it was the case, we would have used the preterit. When questioning someone’s life experience, use EVER like in this song by the Standells "Have you ever spent the night in jail?"

Click on this link for the lyrics: the_Standells_Have_you_ever

A 13-year-old Irish boy asks a similar question in a powerful video he posted for Safer Internet Day (February 9^th 2016). The teenage boy, who has previously been cyberbullied, made it “to help raise the awareness for other people about how to handle cyberbullying”.

Click on this link for the script: cyber_bullying

And you, have you ever been cyberbullied? Have you ever spent the night in jail? Some answers could be : Yes, I have already been cyberbullied. No I have never spent the night in jail.