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Practise with a grammar game

The key here is to keep in mind that the present perfect always has a connection with the present, with "now", whereas the past simple does not - as its name suggests, it refers to past time or past events.

			I've written three letters this morning (and it isn't midday yet).
			I wrote three letters this morning (and now it's afternoon).

What confuses some learners is that we do use the present perfect to talk about events that have finished. We can say:

I've left my books at home.

Although the action of leaving the books occurred when I left home, we use the present perfect because there is a direct connection to the present, i.e.

I haven't got my books now.

Compare this to:

I left my books at home this morning.

Here, we are thinking of the action in the past. It is no longer morning, and whatever the result of leaving the books at home was, it has now past.

Another point is that we often use the present perfect to present news, but if we continue to discuss the issue we usually change to the past simple:

			Oh dear! I've lost my wallet.
			Really, when did you last have it?
			I took it out when I was on the bus.

For more information on the use of the present perfect and past simple, as well as exercises, see the following web sites:

http://www.edufind.com/english/grammar/Tenses6.cfm