This October, we are continuing our series on all of the tenses of the English language by studying the Present Perfect. (To master this tense, make sure to check out our grammar post about the tense!) What better way to practice tenses than by seeing these tenses used in song? A great example of a song with Present Perfect lyrics is U2’s “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.” Take a look!
U2 “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” lyrics
I have climbed highest mountain
I have run through the fields
Only to be with you
Only to be with you
I have run
I have crawled
I have scaled these city walls
These city walls
Only to be with you
But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for
But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for
I have kissed honey lips
[I have] Felt the healing in her fingertips
It burned like fire
This burning desire
I have spoke[n] with the tongue of angels
I have held the hand of a devil
It was warm in the night
I was cold as a stone
But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for
But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for
I believe in the kingdom come
Then all the colors will bleed into one
Bleed into one
Well yes I’m still running
You broke the bonds and you
Loosed the chains
Carried the cross
Of my shame
Of my shame
You know I believed it
But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for
But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for
But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for
But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for…
As discussed in our post about the Present Perfect, this tense is used in several different ways. One major way we use the Present Perfect is to talk about experiences we have had. In this song, we see many examples of this:
- I have climbed highest mountain
- I have run through the fields
- I have run
- I have crawled
- I have scaled these city walls
- I have kissed honey lips
- [I have] Felt the healing in her fingertips
- I have spoke[n] with the tongue of angels
- I have held the hand of a devil
In each of these examples, this is an experience the singer has had in the past. This is one of the characteristics of the Present Perfect: the action starts in the past. Another characteristic is that this action has a connection to today. These examples have a connection to today because experiences stay with us: they change us, forever.
It is important to note that the above use of the Present Perfect is just one example of the tense and its characteristics. Another use of the Present Perfect is to talk about things that haven’t happened yet, but that we expect to happen soon. We see examples of this with the line “But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for.” The singer hasn’t found what he is looking for . . . yet. But we know that he hopes to find it soon.
We encourage our students to listen to U2’s song and gain some understanding of two of the uses of the Present Perfect, and to keep in mind that music is a great way to learn English! Students can check out our other music post about a very popular song, Gotye’s “Somebody that I Used to Know,” for some great examples of phrasal verb in songs.
Cover photo from Wikipedia and licensed under WikiCommons.