I've visited Venice

Aim of this lesson: Talk about hobbies and your family and practice using the present perfect to talk about experiences.

Chloe and Michael are students at university in Manchester. They're talking about places that they went to in the past.

Dialogue

Chloe	Have you ever been to Venice?
Michael	No, I've never been there. What's it like?
Chloe	It was great, but I went there with my aunt and cousins so I didn't have a lot of free time.
Michael	Did you go on a gondola?
Chloe	No, but I wanted to! Where have you been that was exciting?
Michael	I've been to South Africa. In South Africa we went sailing, which was fantastic.

Do we know when I visited Venice? Do we know how many times I visited Venice?

The Present Perfect is a very commonly used form in English. It is very important to learn how this form is used.

English for B2 students Grammar • Unit 3 Present Perfect
	Form	Example
+ positive sentences	SUBJECT + HAVE / HAS + PAST PARTICIPLE	I have seen The Lord of the Rings.
- negative sentences	SUBJECT + HAVEN'T / HASN'T + PAST PARTICIPLE	I haven't seen The Lord of the Rings.
? questions	HAVE / HAS + SUBJECT + PAST PARTICIPLE ?	Have you seen The Lord of the Rings?
Also for negative sentences we can use have / has + never + past participle - I have never seen The Lord of the Rings.
For questions we often ask Have you ever if we want people to tell us about an experience at ANY time in their life - Have you ever seen the Lord of the Rings?
Remember that the present perfect is only used in situations where we don't know WHEN it happened - I went to France last year NOT I have been to France last year.

The picture of Frodo Baggins' family tree (from the Lord of the Rings films) shows his family.

English for B2 students Vocabulary • Unit 3 Adjectives & Prepositions
Relation to Frodo	Name
Frodo's father	Drogo Baggins
Frodo's mother	Primula Brandybuck
Frodo's aunt (auntie)	Dora Baggins
Frodo's uncle	Dudo Baggins
Frodo's grandfather	Fosco Baggins
Frodo's grandmother	Ruby Bolger
Dora Baggins' nephew	Frodo
Fosco Baggins' grandson	Frodo
Drogo Baggins' son	Frodo

Try to practice asking and answering these questions in pairs. If you're working on your own then write your answers.

How big is your family? Do you have many brothers, sisters, aunts, or uncles?
Have you ever been on vacation with your family? Did you like it?
Have you ever been to see a film at the cinema more than once? When? What film was it?
Whom are you closest to in your family? How often do you see that person?

Try these questions to see if you can use the present perfect correctly. The answers can be found here.

Complete the following sentences using the present perfect or past simple:

For further information about present perfect and past simple see Tenses and Forms.

This is the test page - the answers are not to be inserted here, but to be found here