Signal Words
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Read the time word first and the tense almost picks itself: already, just, yet, ever, never, for and since all point to the present perfect.
The present perfect pairs with already, just, yet, ever, never, for, since, recently, so far and this week. Finished-time markers like yesterday, ago, last week and in 2019 demand the past simple instead.
Updated: July 2026
A2 · Signal Words · 10 min
A structured ten-slide lesson for A2 learners. Hear the signal words in business context, meet the three groups with a tutor, then practise them across six interactive drills before a final six-question quiz. The whole arc is under ten minutes and nothing requires a signup.
Signal words are the small time markers that tell you which tense an English sentence wants. They do not create the tense — they reveal how the speaker sees the time frame. Words like *already*, *just*, *yet*, *ever*, *never*, *for*, *since*, *recently*, *so far* and *this week* keep the door to the present open: either the time period reaches up to now, or the result of the action still counts now. That is exactly the job of the present perfect. Words like *yesterday*, *ago*, *last week* and *in 2019* close that door: the period is over and finished, so the past simple takes over. For you as a learner this is an enormous shortcut. Instead of working through the whole theory of tenses for every sentence, you read the time word first and let it make the decision. In the vast majority of sentences the signal word walks you straight to the right tense — and the few exceptions, such as *for*, which can appear with both tenses, are covered in this lesson too. Signal words are not a beginner's trick; they are what native speakers do unconsciously anyway: hear the time word, set the tense to match.
The first group marks actions that happened only a moment ago and whose result matters now. *Just* means it happened very recently: *I've just sent the invoice* — the invoice is out, and that is the news. *Already* stresses that something is done earlier than expected, and in statements it sits between the auxiliary and the past participle: *We've already signed the contract.* *Yet* is its counterpart for negatives and questions, and it goes at the end of the sentence: *The payment hasn't arrived yet. Have you sent the offer yet?* *Recently* covers the last few days or weeks: *We've recently hired two new developers.* All four words follow the same principle: the action is in the very recent past, but its result belongs to the present — hence the present perfect. Pay special attention to position, because that is where the errors happen: *already* and *just* sit mid-sentence, *yet* sits at the end. A sentence like *Have you yet sent the offer?* sounds instantly wrong to English ears even though every individual word is correct. At work, this group is the most frequent of the three: status updates, email replies and stand-up meetings run on *already*, *just* and *yet*.
The second group asks about experience without naming a time. *Ever* appears almost exclusively in questions: *Have you ever worked with an international client? Have you ever given a presentation in English?* When exactly it happened is beside the point — what matters is whether the experience exists at all. *Never* is its negative answer: *I've never missed a deadline. We've never had a complaint from this customer.* Careful: *never* already carries the negation, so it takes no extra *not*. *I haven't never used this software* is a double negative and wrong — the correct form is *I've never used this software*. This group earns its keep in professional life, because job interviews and client conversations are built on it: *Have you ever led a team? Have you ever worked with SAP?* The answer then stays in the present perfect (*Yes, I've worked with SAP for two years*) or flips into the past simple the moment a specific time enters: *Yes, I led a team in my last job.* Remember the division of labour: *ever* and *never* open the conversation about experience — the details that follow are told in the simple past.
The third group describes time periods that reach up to now. *For* takes a duration: *for three years, for six months, for a long time.* *Since* takes a starting point: *since 2019, since January, since the last meeting.* German translates both as "seit" — the classic trap, which gets its own section below. *So far* sums up a running period: *So far we've received twenty applications.* Expressions like *this week*, *this month* and *this year* belong here too, as long as the period is still running: *I've had three meetings this week* — the week is not over yet, so present perfect. The moment the period closes, the sentence tips into the past simple: *I had three meetings last week.* That minimal contrast — *this week* versus *last week* — shows the entire system at a glance. In business English this group carries the relationship work: *We've worked with this supplier since 2019* tells your counterpart more than a date — it says the cooperation continues today and will probably go on.
Every present perfect list needs its counter-list, because the biggest confusion lives exactly on this border. *Yesterday*, *ago*, *last week*, *last month*, *in 2019* and *when I was…* name closed time periods — the action lies entirely in the past, and the sentence demands the past simple. *I sent the invoice yesterday. We met the client two weeks ago. She joined the company in 2019.* The fastest test is the flip question: does the sentence name a finished time? Then past simple. Is the time left open, or does it reach up to now? Then present perfect. The most instructive case is the minimal pair built on the same year: *We worked with this supplier in 2019* means the cooperation happened back then and is over. *We've worked with this supplier since 2019* means it started back then and continues today. One single word — *in* versus *since* — flips the entire meaning. If you remember only one contrast from this lesson, make it this one: the year itself is innocent; the small word in front of it decides everything.
If your first language is German, you arrive with three built-in stumbling blocks that this lesson tackles head-on. First: the German Perfekt looks confusingly similar to the English present perfect but plays by different rules. In spoken German, the Perfekt covers almost the whole past — "Ich habe die Rechnung gestern geschickt" is perfectly correct German. Carry that pattern into English and you produce *I have sent the invoice yesterday* — which is wrong, because *yesterday* forces the past simple. The form matches; the rule does not: in English the time word decides, not the sentence structure. Second: German "seit" splits into two English words. Before a starting point it becomes *since* ("seit 2019" → *since 2019*); before a duration it becomes *for* ("seit drei Jahren" → *for three years*). Third, the bonus trap: German uses the present tense with "seit" — "Ich arbeite hier seit 2020." English demands the present perfect there: *I've worked here since 2020*, never *I work here since 2020*. Know these three transfer errors and steer against them actively, and a large share of your tense mistakes disappears in one stroke.
The present perfect pairs with already, just, yet, ever, never, for, since, recently, so far and this week — they leave the time open or connect it to now. The past simple pairs with yesterday, ago, last week, last month and years introduced by in, such as in 2019 — they name finished time. The fastest test: if the sentence names a completed time, use the past simple; otherwise the present perfect is almost always the right call.
Because "yesterday" names a finished time, and the present perfect cannot sit inside finished time. The mistake is especially common among German speakers because the German Perfekt allows exactly this sentence — "Ich habe die Rechnung gestern geschickt" is correct German. In English, however, the time word decides, and "yesterday" forces the past simple. The fix is simple: "I sent the invoice yesterday."
Yes — which is exactly why "for" is the most deceptive signal word on the list. "I've worked there for three years" means you still work there; "I worked there for three years" means that period is over. The signal word alone does not settle it here — you have to ask whether the period is still running. With "since", "already" or "yet" the situation is clearer: they pair with the present perfect practically every time.
Not quite. American English often uses the past simple with "just", "already" and "yet": "I already ate" or "Did you send it yet?" are everyday American sentences. British English keeps the present perfect as the norm in those cases: "I've already eaten", "Have you sent it yet?" Both variants are understood worldwide. Textbooks in Germany generally follow the British pattern — if you want to learn one variant consistently, that is the safe choice.
This lesson is the shortcut between two tenses. You get the most out of it if you already know the form of the present perfect — the *present-perfect* lesson (B1) explains it in depth. Practise the *past-simple* (A2) alongside it, because the signal words only make full sense as a contrasting pair. After that, *signal-words-all-tenses* (B1) is the natural next step: it maps the signal words of every English tense in one overview.
Because spoken German simply does not draw the line that English guards so strictly. In everyday German, the Perfekt covers almost the entire past — whether something happened yesterday, ten years ago or a moment ago, you say "ich habe … gemacht". The Präteritum survives mainly in writing and in high-frequency verbs like "war" and "hatte". English, by contrast, splits consistently by present relevance. Your first language therefore gives you no instinct for exactly this distinction — and the signal words replace that missing instinct with a visible rule.
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