Over the last year

Question

although this time adjunct, over the last year, is a period from the past up to now and it is usually used with present perfect tense. however, is it possible to be used with past tense?

for example:

The economy of the country deteriorated over the last year.

thanks for your guidance.

AlpheccaStars · Accepted Answer

AnonymousThe economy of the country deteriorated over the last year.

This is fine. It is factual and complete.

If you use the present perfect tense, it indicates that the condition of deterioration persists into the present time.

BillJ · Answer

AlpheccaStars
AnonymousThe economy of the country deteriorated over the last year.
This is fine. It is factual and complete.

If you use the present perfect tense, it indicates that the condition of deterioration persists into the present time.

The two statements you're making are incompatible here. The key words here are 'over the'. You can correctly use the past tense to say 'The economy of the country deteriorated last year' because it's a complete event which occurred in the past. But the meaning of the expression 'over the last year' is different; it means 'in the last year ending right now'; it's a 'past time' situation seen as having some kind of current relevance, not something which is 'complete'. So the correct verb form is not the past tense but the present perfect which maintains that sense of current relevance: 'The economy of the country has deteriorated over the last year'.

BillJ

Anonymous · Answer

Here are some similar examples:

1. I saw them recently.

2. My health deteriorated in the last ten days.

The 2 time adjuncts also express the period of time from a point in the past up to now.

However, there are a lot of example demonstrating they can also be used in the past tense context.

I would say that "The economy of the country deteriorated over the last year" is also acceptable.

The writer or speaker used "over the last year" instead of "last year" in the sentence because, I would imagine, S/He would like to stress this process is from the beginning until the end of the year and completed.

I do not know whether that is correct, but I am sure these type of examples do exist.

Over the last year

Top answer

Get the Weekly English Kit 📬

Related Questions