perfect vs past help

Question

Many things have happened since we last met.Many things happened since we last met.Which one is correct and what is the difference between them?thanks in adv

Philip · Accepted Answer

AnonymousMany things have happened since we last met.

Many things happened since we last met.

Which one is correct and what is the difference between them?
thanks in adv

The first is more proper, as you are emphasizing all the time up to the present. [This is one of the basic times to use the perfect.] I wouldn't use the second one at all, but I'll leave it to someone else to declare it incorrect.

BarbaraPA · Answer

The use of the present perfect says that things are still happening. If you use the second, you are saying that they are no longer happening. Or making them final, in some way.

So perhaps... since we last met, I met someone new, we got married, we had a child... these things are completed actions.

It could fit in with a conversation between John and Mary, former lovers who haven't seen each other in a few years.

Mary: John, it's nice to see you again.

John: Nice? It's only nice? Mary, it's wonderful to see you again!

Mary: Well, that's kind of you to say.

John: Nice? Kind? Mary, what's happend to you since we last met? You used to be so full of life, so passionate!

Mary: John, a lot has happened to me. MANY things happened since we last met. I'm married now. I'm a mother. My husband and son are my life now, not you. I had to make a new life for myself since you left me for that tramp. So don't come by here now, expecting me to be overjoyed to see you. Things happened after you left me, things that were good for me. YOU are not good for me. I lied when I said it was nice to see you. Now go away!

(Philip, I hadn't written a silly example in a while, and you used to like them

)

Philip · Answer

Grammar GeekMary: John, a lot has happened to me. MANY things happened since we last met. I'm married now. I'm a mother. My husband and son are my life now, not you. I had to make a new life for myself since you left me for that tramp. So don't come by here now, expecting me to be overjoyed to see you. Things happened after you left me, things that were good for me. YOU are not good for me. I lied when I said it was nice to see you. Now go away!

(Philip, I hadn't written a silly example in a while, and you used to like them )

You've certainly made up for it with this. Thanks.

BarbaraPA · Answer

My new year's present to you. I couldn't figure out how to work in what happened to the guinea pig they bought together <img class='emoticon' style='Width:19px;Height:19px;' data-delaysrc='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/1.gif' src='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/1.gif' alt='Emotion: smile'/>

Anonymous · Answer

Thanks. Although it's still weird for me as I don't have the equivalent
of present perfect in my language. There's always a result of our
actions in the past right? Where's the point in time that things stopped to happen? For present perfect they're still happening and for past tense they've stopped completely? It's relally bizzare in English

Thanks anyway.

CalifJim · Answer

relally bizzare

really bizarre

The present perfect is a present tense!
It describes the state of affairs now, at the moment of speaking.
It just so happens that the state of affairs now is the state of affairs now because of something that happened previously, and the present perfect tense draws attention to this fact.

That isbizarre, isn't it?

Sometimes the present perfect is called the "diary tense". It says that in your diary you have an entry that records the event in question. I have seen that movie says that now there is an entry in your diary (appropriately dated on the day you saw the movie) saying "I saw that movie today".

CJ

Anonymous · Answer

Thanks a lot. Sorry for my previous messy post (I was still under the influence....

)
That's really

a great way of explaining present perfect as 'the diary tense'. Helped a lot. Thanks.

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