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Q: "Have you seen John?"A1: "I saw him in the garden."A2: "I've seen him in the garden."Which answer is more natural, A1 or A2?

Clive · Accepted Answer

A1

Also common is eg He was in the garden.

Clive

Anonymous · Answer

CliveA1

Thank you for the reply.

CalifJim · Answer

Anonymous"Have you seen John?"

This is a yes-no question. The answer is "Yes" or "No", i.e., "Yes, I have seen him" or "No, I have not seen him". The intent of the question, however, is to find out where John is, so if the reply is "yes", we add more information to specify where John is, and often don't even say the real answer ("yes").

The question is "open". It is literally, "Have you seen John at any time in your life?", but more likely within context, "Have you seen John recently?" That is, the time period is open, so we use the present perfect. It does no good to answer with the present perfect when we specify the information that locates John; that's just another open time period. "I've seen him in the garden (at some time in my whole life)" doesn't really help, does it?

To specify his location we need the simple past, which indicates a closed time period. "I saw him", for example, indicates a specific occasion of your seeing him at a particular time.

— Have you seen John?
— (Yes.) [ He was (just) / I (just) saw him] in the garden.

To be more informative, you would specify a time, e.g., I saw him in the garden 20 minutes ago.

The present is of course also possible: He is in the garden.

CJ

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