<p>I notice a lot of the questions have the phrase has been underline or have seen and so forth. </p>
<p>When do i use have or has, etc or when do I just use a past tense verb? I've always found this confusing.</p>
<p>Give me a problem from a practice test that uses this and I'll work you through it. I don't know grammar rules at all, but I can show you with a worked example (I got an 800W, btw).</p>
<p>^Hmmm i can't think of any examples but i know i see them often.</p>
<p>The difference is subtle but there. For example, "I have eaten pork" means that you have, at some vague point in the past, eaten pork. However, "I ate pork" either implies that you used to eat it but don't anymore, or that you ate it at a specific point in time (eg "I ate pork at the party last week"). They are not really interchangeable in most situations. </p>
<p>Hope that helped!</p>
<p>Is there ever a time on the SAT where they'll throw that at me? How would i know which one is correct?</p>
<p>Yeah, MstrLinks, this issue comes up pretty often on the SAT.</p>
<p>maea knows what s/he is talking about.</p>
<p>That has/have tense is called the present perfect. </p>
<p>Try ENGLISH</a> PAGE - Present Perfect.</p>
<p>The most important single rule I can think of is this one: <em>don't</em> use the present perfect if the sentence tells you when the event took place. If you have an expression such as "after. . . ," "before. . . ," or "while. . . ," or any specific indication of time like a day or a date, you can't use the present perfect. (In other words, has/have verbs of the type you mentioned will be wrong.)</p>
<p>If you've got a good prep guide, though, look up the verb tense section and I bet it will explain all of this stuff to you.</p>
<p>I think "has been" is the singular form of "have been". Both suggests that you were doing something in the past, but is continuing now, or it happened at an indefinite time in the past. Both are different from "had been"</p>
<p>hope it helps</p>