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Hi!
Aside from the "has + verb past simple" and "have + verb past simple" formulas which, I believe you already mastered, being specific with time, and the use of some adverbs of degree play big roles here.
Consider these examples and hope we agree with the same correct thoughts.
1. I / We / They / You have (just) finished editing this sentence.
2. He / She / It has (just) stopped running.
3. Have you (ever) watched Sound of Music?
4. I have (never) watched Sound of Music.
5.Uh oh, Johnny has taken IELTS exam for the fifth time already! (repetitive action)
Some of these may still be very vague for new ESL, EFL TESOL, ESOL etc... learners. But eventually they will catch up with the usage as you drive them to understand.
Enjoy teaching1
The present perfect is used when there is a relation between the past and the present. This relation can be the continuity of the action or the presence of its effect in the present. On the other hand, the past perfect is used when the action happens in the past and there is no mentioning of a relation with the present time, e.g.,
I have lost my keys. (the message is that I lost them and I haven't found them yet)
l lost my keys this morning. (there is no indication whether I have found them or not, what's more important to the speaker here is that this event happened and it happened this morning)
We use this tense when we want to talk about unfinished actions that started in the past and continue to the present. Usually we use it to say 'how long' an action or state has continued with 'since' and 'for'. Often,
we use stative verbs in this situation:
We use 'since' with a fixed time in the past (2004, April23rd, last year, two hours ago). The fixed time can be another action, indicated with the past simple (since I was at school, since I arrived
We use 'for' with a period of time (2 hours, three years, six months