I [have] walked on this path before.

Question

Hi,

What are the differences between the two sentences in each group?

1.I have walked on this path before.
2.I walked on this path before. 3.We have eaten the lasagna here.
4.We ate the lasagna here. Thank you very much.

Anonymous · Accepted Answer

stephenlearner
Hi,
What are the differences between the two sentences in each group?
1.I have walked on this path before.
2.I walked on this path before. 3.We have eaten the lasagna here.
4.We ate the lasagna here. Thank you very much.

1) Grammatically correct. But in conversation as in # 2, simple past tense will be just fine. I walked on this path before. In this context, "before" means "in the past".

# 3 is grammatical.

# 4 is fine. But idiomatically, we'd say " We had lasagna here before" "Ate" is literal but sounds stiff.

Teechr · Answer

stephenlearner1.I have walked on this path before.2.I walked on this path before.

The present perfect is often used with "before" when no specific time is indicated. Thus, sentence #1 is standard, but you may hear people using sentence #2. However, if you have a particular time point in the past, then the past simple is used. I walked on this path before I got married.

stephenlearner3.We have eaten the lasagna here.4.We ate the lasagna here.

This is just the difference between a recent/still relevant event (present perfect) and a past (finished) event.

I [have] walked on this path before.

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