B1

Present Perfect and Past Simple

This is a difficult grammar point for Spanish speakers because we think that present perfect is a kind of past in Spanish (we called it pretérito perfecto simple). Let's see the main differences between these two tenses:

Fun vs funny

Fun is used to describe something that you enjoy doing.

It is fun to play football / I have fun when I learn English

Funny: funny is normally used to talk about things that make you laugh 

Rise vs raise

Tanto raise /'reɪz/ como rise /'raɪz/ significan subir, elevar, incrementar... Sin embargo tienen algunas diferencias:

Used to vs Would

Would can be used to talk about past habits.

My grand father would come home from work, he would sit by the fire and drink a cup of tea

Attend vs Assist

Attend: To be present at an event

I attend classes every Monday.

Assist : to help sb to sth

Sarah assists elementary school children with their homework every Monday afternoon.

More Commonly Confused Words

Present Perfect

We use present perfect:

  • To talk about past experiences when we don't say when they happened. If we say when they happened (minutes ago, yesterday, in a date) we use the past simple.
  • To give news if something has happened recently we often use just