nihongo wo benkyou shitai

An hour ago, if you asked me if I knew what the present perfect tense is, I would have looked pretty blank..... which is a bit embarrassing as I use it everyday in both English and Japanese. But first, here is an example of the past tense:

My friend broke his arm.

Pretty clear? At some point in the past, my friend suffered a broken arm. We could also reasonably assume from this statement that his arm is OK now. Why? Well, the past tense tends to define events that occurred in the past, with no link to the present.

If we have to describe an event that has happened, BUT has a link to the present, we have to use present perfect. For example:

My friend has broken his arm.

Again, at some point in the past, my friend's arm became broken, and still is. OK. Compare these two sentences.

I was busy this morning.
I have been busy this morning.

The first suggests that either 'I am no longer busy' or 'It is no longer morning' or possibly both. The second suggests that 'I am still busy' or ' it is still morning' or (again) both. Infact, this is just one possible use of the Present Perfect tense. Here's a quick list:

• When the time period of an event has not yet finished. Comapre:
  

I lived in Germany for 3 years. (Plain Past)
I have lived in Germany for 3 years. (Present Perfect)

• When giving recent news. Compare:
  

Matt was ill (Plain Past)
Matt has been ill again (Present Perfect)

• When referring to an event without being specific about the time. Compare:
  

I sat the JLPT exam last year. (Plain Past)
I have sat the JLPT exam. (Present Perfect)

Seems reasonable enough....

Now, in Japanese, there appears to be two ways in which to structure Present Perfect sentences. One I don't really understand yet, so I'll conveniently pretend it doesn't exist! The other one, ことがある, is first year Japanese stuff (but did you knowthe posh name for it?).

Let's take it for a spin in the grammatical Ferrari...

English: I have taken the JLPT exam.
Jenglish: [JLPT exam][take + Present Past]
日本語： 日本語能力試験を受けたことがあります。

Note: JLPT = 日本語能力試験.

But, how would you say 'I have taken the JLPT1 exam.' Prizes to be won....