Anonymous  +  568257 Sat, 20 Sep 08 01:49 PM Hi, I'm currently studying up on tenses and I'm doing an exercise in my book whereby I need to state whether the sentence does or does not use the perfect tense. I'm a little stuck with the following sentence: "I have a dog called Frank" My understanding is that to identify the perfect tense I should be looking for the auxiliary verb 'have' and the past participle of the main verb, in this case 'to call'. Can I therefore conclude that this is the perfect tense? I would be more confident if the sentence simply read "I have called Frank", but the separation between the auxiliary and the main verb has confused me. Anonymous Verbs, Tenses, Auxiliaries

	Tanit  +  568262 Sat, 20 Sep 08 02:05 PM Hi, "I have a dog called Frank" it's not in the present perfect. Here, "called Frank" modifies "dog"; it tells you something more about it. Tanit Joined on Mon, Jul 31 2006 Senior Member 3,030 There is no greater pain than to remember a happy time when one is in misery. (Dante) Present Perfect

	Tanit  +  568305 Sat, 20 Sep 08 04:23 PM Hi, Anonymous “So am I right in thinking that "I have called Frank" would be the present perfect tense?” Yes, you're right. Anonymous “... but the separation between the auxiliary and the main verb has confused me.” Be careful, sometimes the verb "have" and the past participle (or "had" and the past participle, if we are talking about the past perfect) are not adjacent, so you cannot make your choice by simply looking at their proximity! All of the following sentences, for instance, are in the present perfect:         - Have you ever seen a ghost?         - I have already told you!         - I have always done my best. Tanit Verbs, Past Perfect, Tenses, Auxiliaries, Present Perfect