American usage of present perfect

Question

CalifJimBe careful. The word is 'gap'. There is also the word 'gasp' and it has a very different meaning.

Thanks for correcting my mistake. I mean "gap".

Is what I said about 1st context ( I missed you/ I have missed you) on previous post correct?
Because the "concept of gap to the present" is so vague, and it is not importance here, so I can use whatever I feel like.This means both are fine, and there is actually no difference.

CalifJimI'm not so sure that we must use the present perfect in that case, but that situation certainly seems appropriate for the use of the present perfect.Let me know if you had a particular sentence in mind that illustrates this situation.

My example:

I have worked for this company since graduated from university.
This means I started working in the past until now. I will work for this company in the future ( I don't have plan to quit the job here).

In cases like this. I MUST use present perfect.

That what I meant.

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

LE HANH 2383Is what I said about 1st context ( I missed you/ I have missed you) on previous post correct?
Because the "concept of gap to the present" is so vague, and it is not importance here, so I can use whatever I feel like.
This means both are fine, and there is actually no difference.

It's not completely correct. It needs some fine tuning.

I said that it could go either way because the speaker may be focusing on 'missing someone' primarily as continuing from the past to the present and therefore using the present perfect, or the speaker may be focusing on 'missing someone' as finished because the person who was missed has just returned. The arrival of this person can be construed as creating a gap between the period of being missed and the time of utterance — a small gap, but a gap. The speaker who thinks of it this way uses the simple past.

In other words, it can be "I have missed you from the time you left until now" or "I missed you during the time you were away (which ended when you arrived a little while ago)".

So you can say both are fine, but you can't say there is actually no difference nor that the concept of a gap is not important. There is a small difference in emphasis, and that difference is dependent on the speaker's feeling about whether there is a gap or not.

LE HANH 2383I have worked for this company since I graduated from university.

LE HANH 2383
This means I started working in the past until now. I will work for this company in the future ( I don't have plan to quit the job here).
In cases like this. I MUST use present perfect.

Here you have to use the present perfect because you have a since-clause of time, not because you will work for the company in the future.

Suppose you quit your job because you got a good offer at a different company. At your going-away party, you can mention to someone,

I have worked for this company since I graduated from university, so the new job that I'll be starting next week will be quite a big change for me.

CJ

American usage of present perfect

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