Me preguntan que cómo se traduce. (Podéis preguntar directamente en el foro, ¿vale?)

Present perfect: have/has + Past participle
Present perfect continuous: have/has + BEEN + -ing form of V

I have been living in this house for over six years.
Llevo viviendo en esta casa más de seis años.

I have been studying English all my life.
Llevo toda la vida estudiando inglés.
Llevo estudiando inglés toda mi vida.

No sé si esto soluciona la duda.

See you

[Modificado el 30-10-2005 de Profe de inglés EOI]

Hello, I sorry but it don´t resolve my doubt. How can I translate the present perfect? in what are they different? I think that the error in students of english is it. We try to translate all.
Thank you for to create this page, it´ll be very useful, sure.

hi again,
I think that the error in students of english is it. We try to translate all.no??

Hello, ana!

Well, it's true. You shouldn't translate all the time, because English and Spanish are not equivalent in all the different uses of the tenses.

There are things in common: sometimes when we use the Pretérito perfecto in Spanish, in English we use the Present perfect, so people think they are equivalent, but this is not always so.

The problem Spanish speakers have with the present perfect is that sometimes they use it instead of a past simple.

¡Se me ha olvidado la composición! In English would be: I forgot my essay! Because forgetting is a completed action in the past. (Porque la acción del olvido ya fue consumada, terminó.)

¿Qué te has comprado? (pretérito perfecto)
What did you buy? (past simple)

Porque la acción de comprar ya fue consumada.

This is just a little point I'm making! Please, send in your examples, and we can comment them.

A tip for not translating: revise your English textbooks, you probably have many. Read aloud the dialogues, listen to them and repeat. USE THOSE SENTENCES! Why should you translate if the book has sentences which are VERY ENGLISH and which are correct! Then you could expand, for sure, to adapt the dialogue to your needs. But, why not use what there is at hand?

See you and thanks for taking part!

[Modificado el 23-10-2005 de Profe de inglés EOI]