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Anonymous Posted 10 years ago
Grammar

Before

"How quickly things change in football. But, as we have seen before, this is a fragile atmosphere at the Emirates and won't take much for it to turn again." (BBC Sport website.)

Is "before" a time marker of the past in the above? And if so, why is the past tense not used in "as we have seen before"?
  

Top answer

Hi Yes, that is how 'before' is working there: it is saying that we have seen similar moments in football in the past The verb construction is usually referred to as the Present Perfect but I think that is misleading. com explains the use of tenses: Use of past to refer to present beliefs Dave

— Dave_anon

  • Hi Yes, that is how 'before' is working there: it is saying that we have seen similar moments in football in the past The verb construction is usually referred to as the Present Perfect but I think that is misleading.
  • com explains the use of tenses: Use of past to refer to present beliefs Dave
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2 Answers
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Hi

Yes, that is how 'before' is working there: it is saying that we have seen similar moments in football in the past

The verb construction is usually referred to as the Present Perfect but I think that is misleading. The tense tells you how we are in the present, but it really refers to the past:

- We have seen this before

[= At the moment, we can refer to thi
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dave_anon- We have seen this before[= At the moment, we can refer to things that are now done and have happened in the past]
Thank you for the reply.
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