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Anonymous Posted 20 years ago
Grammar

Is it wrong?

1i00I have been to New York and I have bought many books.02i02br
02br
00(Focusing on my trip and my purchase of books.)02br
02br
01i00I have been to New York and I bought many books.02i02br
02br
00(Focusing on my trip and what I did WHEN I was there)02br
02br
00Now the great question::02br
02br
01i00I went to New York and I bought many books.02i02br
02br
00(For me, if there is no mention to when the trip happened I could not start the sentence with simple past.) 02br
02br
00I know it is colloquial but is it grammatically correct to use a simple past sentence with no explicit or implicit concept of time before, during or after the statement was made?02br
02br
00Thank you!0-
  

Top answer

02font 02br 02br 00If you meet me in the street and say 01font 01i 00Hi, Clive, I've been to New York02i 02font 00, I'll say something like 01font 01i 00Great, did you have a good time? 02i 00 02font 00because the statement needs to refer to a point in time. 02br 02br 00As you note, however, the time reference can be implicit or mentioned in some earlier sentence.

— Clive

  • 02font 02br 02br 00If you meet me in the street and say 01font 01i 00Hi, Clive, I've been to New York02i 02font 00, I'll say something like 01font 01i 00Great, did you have a good time?
  • 02i 00 02font 00because the statement needs to refer to a point in time.
  • 02br 02br 00As you note, however, the time reference can be implicit or mentioned in some earlier sentence.
  • 02br 02br 00Best wishes, Clive0-
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7 Answers
0
0Hi,02br
02br
01i01font00I went to New York and I bought many books.02font02i02br
02br
01font00(For me, if there is no mention to when the trip happened I could not start the sentence with simple past.) 02font02br
02br
01font0
0
0
0Hi,02br
02br
00Glad you asked this question.00 00How English speaking people use English does not represent the correctness of their English. That said, I would say what you hear depends a lot on the class of people you converse with and this has nothing to do with economics. By that, I mean rich people don’t necessarily possess better English skills.02br
0
0
0
0Hi,02br
02br
00If you meet me in the street and say 01font01i00Hi, Clive, I've been to New York02i02font00, I'll say something like 01font01i00Great, did you have a good time? 02i02font02br
02br
01font01i00If
0
0
0Hi Goodman. Hi everybody.02br
02br
00If I am referring in my speech to an event in the past that has a beginning and an end, which time shall I use?02br
02br
00For example: It is October 06, I was/had been/have been, form August 05 until August 06 in the US because of an exchange year. 02br
02br
00So, I would say to my friend:02br
0
0
0 01blockquote
02br
12br
10 4) Mary had shared an apartment with me before she found a job out-of –state.12br
12br
10This calls for past perfect tense to depict the time line of something happened in the past and finished in the past. 12br
12br
10 The sharing took place sometime in the past and finishe
0
0
0 01blockquote
01cite10Swiss Jake12cite10Hi Goodman. Hi everybody.12br
12br
10If I am referring in my speech to an event in the past that has a beginning and an end, which time shall I use?12br
12br
10For example: It is October 06, I was/had been/have been, form August 05 until August 06 in the US because of an e
0
0
0Hi Goodman.02br
02br
00Thank you.02br
02br
00Yes, when I am back in my country and I am looking back on my exchange year.02br
02br
00With October, 2006 I meant the date, when I am back in my country. Sorry for the confusion. I did not mean Oc. 6th.02br
02br
00Jake0-
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