Differences Between
Present Perfect Simple
Simple Past.
It is a verb tense that we use to talk about something that happened in the past but has relevance in the present, either because it happened very recently or because it is an action that has not yet finished.
It is formed with the verb have/has and the past participle of the main verb of the sentence, like this:
Subject + Auxiliary verb + Main verb(Past participle) + Complement
Examples
I have worked here for a year.
He has been in London for six months now.
Uses:
Unfinished actions
Finished actions
It is used to refer to an action that started in the past and continues in the present.
We have lived here since 2001.
She has worked with me for ten years.
To talk about experiences or things that have happened in the past, but without saying when it happened.
I have lived in three different countries.
A completed action with a result in the present.
I need to call my father, but I have lost my phone.
When we refer to the time when the action happened but not specifically using expressions like this month / this month, the last year / last year, this week / this week.
I haven't talked with her this week.
Form
The "simple past" is used to talk about an action that ended earlier than the current one. The duration is not relevant. The time in which the action is situated can be the recent past or the distant past.
Form
Subject + Main verb + Complement
Uses
The "simple past" is always used to refer to when something happened, so it is associated with certain time expressions that indicate:
Frequency: often, sometimes, always.
A specified time: last week, when I was a child, yesterday, six weeks ago
An indeterminate time: the other day, ages ago, a long time ago People lived in caves a long time ago.
Examples
They weren't in Rio last summer.
Were they in Iceland last January?