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Anonymous Posted 14 years ago
Grammar

Past continuous with present perfect or past simple

Hello there Emotion: smile

I got a question and I really hope that you can help, your website has helped me a lot lately:)

So the problem is that I don't really get the difference beetween these two sentences:

- While I was going downstairs I saw her
- While I was going downstairs I've seen her

I understand the difference between Past Simple and Present Perfect but if we don't have a context what should we choose and why? though I know that the right answer is to use Past Simple but why??? We don't have any indicators like yesterday or two days ago.

I can't sleep because of it, it bothers me a lot. Please, help me! Emotion: smile Thank you beforehand:)
  

Top answer

- While I was going downstairs I saw her. Fine, natural . - While I was going downstairs I've seen her.

— AlpheccaStars

  • - While I was going downstairs I saw her.
  • Fine, natural .
  • - While I was going downstairs I've seen her.
  • Not natural, not correct.
  • The present perfect is not used in this kind of relationship between two actions- one continuous, and the other completed.
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1 Answers
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- While I was going downstairs I saw her. Fine, natural.
- While I was going downstairs I've seen her. Not natural, not correct. The present perfect is not used in this kind of relationship between two actions- one continuous, and the other completed.
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