Which verb tense indicates actions that have been completed, often using a helping verb?

The perfect tense is used to indicate actions that have been completed at some point in time. This tense often employs a helping verb, such as "have," "has," or "had," combined with the past participle of the main verb. For example, in the sentence "She has finished her homework," the helping verb "has" indicates that the action of finishing the homework is complete. The use of the perfect tense helps convey the relationship between past actions and present circumstances, highlighting that the action was completed prior to now.

In contrast, the present tense describes actions happening right now, the past tense refers to actions completed in the past without the additional context of their relevance to the present, and the future tense indicates actions that will occur later. Each of these tenses serves its own purpose, but only the perfect tense explicitly highlights the completion of an action through the use of a helper verb.