Has Threatened or Threatened

Question

Hi,Please see the sentences below:1&gt;a: "You are my daughter. It makes me happy to be able to help you. So tell me. b: "Okay. He has threatened to kill me."2&gt;"Because I am not the only one looking for it. American intelligence has caught wind of the missing key. They have sent a man to locate the key. His name is David Becker."I'm wondering why in these two situations the Present Perfect was used and not just the Past Simple. Would someone please explain? Would it have something to do with the result thing? I read that when we can see the result of something that happened in the past, we use the Present Perfect. Thank you very much!

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

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It is recent news.
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Rafaelinrio · Answer

Bamtori1>
a: "You are my daughter. It makes me happy to be able to help you. So tell me.
b: "Okay. He has threatened to kill me."

2>
"Because I am not the only one looking for it. American intelligence has caught wind of the missing key. They have sent a man to locate the key. His name is David Becker."

Hey, perfect perfect is being rather than simple past because you don't have time reference. Simple past usually requires the use of a word that indicates time reference.

i.e:

Hey man, I saw the movie "Slumdog Millionaire" last night, it's a great movie. You must see it. (time reference)

I have seen the movie "Slumdog Millionaire" man, it's an awesome movie. (no time reference)

Yankee · Answer

Hi Bamtori

One reason for the use of the present perfect in your sentences is that the idea of when is completely unimportant. What is important is the simple general fact that something happened. Your sentences are not at all specific in terms of time.

a: "You are my daughter. It makes me happy to be able to help you. So tell me.
b: "Okay. He has threatened to kill me."

In your first example, the daughter is giving her father/mother some news. Initially, only the fact that she has received a death threat is important in the conversation. However, it is quite likely that as this conversation continues, it will change to the simple past tense as "A" asks for more detail. I can easily imagine the conversation continuing something like this:

a: "What! Why on earth did he do that?"

- OR -

a: "What! When did that happen?"

Has Threatened or Threatened

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