Listen to the Lesson
We use this pattern to ask yes/no questions about somebody’s personal experience in the past or about their recent actions.
These questions are similar to past tense questions, but we cannot use a specific time with these questions. We never use a specific time with present perfect grammar.
- Did you go to China last year?
- Have you been to China? (No specific time!)
We use “have” or “has” depending on the subject of the sentence.
| Have I…? | Have you…? |
| Have we…? / Have Jon and I…? | Has she…? / Has Mary…? |
| Has he…? / Has Jon…? | Has it…? / Has the company…? |
| Have they…? / Have Jon and Mary…? | Have they…? / Have the dogs…? |
Have/Has + subject + past participle…?
We use these questions to ask about life experiences. The time that a person did the action is not important. We often add “ever” or “before” to these questions.
- Have you ever met my sister?
- Have you tried this curry before?
- Has he climbed Mt. Fuji?
- Have you visited Europe?
- Has he tried bungee jumping?
We can also ask about recent experiences or actions. We are not interested in the things that happened in the distant past. We use “recently” or “lately” to ask about recent things.
- Have they called you recently?
- Has she attended class lately?
- Have they asked you for help recently?
With these questions, we often use the verb “to be” (been) instead of the verb “to go” (gone).
- Have you been to China?
- Have you been to the dentist recently?
- Have you been to this restaurant?
- Has she been to your house before?
Bonus Tips and Points
1. We can make the questions more specific by using words like: ever, before, recently, yet.A) Have you ever been here before?
B) Yes, I have, but I have not been here for a long time.
A) Have you been there recently?
B) No, I haven’t been there recently, but I went there when I was young.
A) Have you met her before?
B) Yes. I met her last year at a business conference.
A) Have you called your mother yet? It’s her birthday.
B) I haven’t called her yet, but I will call her after dinner.
Real-World English Conversations
A) Have you ever been to Tokyo?
B) No, I haven’t, but I want to go.
A) Have you seen this movie before?
B) Yes, I have. It is good.
A) Have you finished the report yet?
B) I haven’t finished yet. I need another day.
A) Has she called yet?
B) She hasn’t called yet. I will tell you when she calls.
A) Have you ever tried raw fish?
B) Yes, I have tried raw fish. It was really good.
A) Have you bought expensive clothes recently?
B) No. I haven’t bought anything expensive for a long time.
A) Have you heard of this book?
B) Yes, I have. Everybody says it’s good.
A) Have you seen this musical before?
B) Never.
A) Good. Let’s watch it together tonight. I have 2 tickets.
B) Sounds good to me.
Use these free English lessons to learn the most common sentence patterns in the English language. If you learn these sentences and questions, it will help you speak English well. Study the lessons thoroughly, practice making your own sentences, and come back to review often. If you do these three steps, your English speaking will improve quickly and you will be able to have natural English conversations.
English Sentence Patterns for Speaking Index
