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Kane159 Posted 15 years ago
Grammar

Present perfect and simple past - usage

Hi,
I've found an article dealing with floods and mudslides in Brazil, and I would be glad if you proved my comments right or wrong.


Rio de Janeiro Governor Sergio Cabral blamed local governments for allowing poor building and illegal occupations. ( the fact that he blamed local governments is already known or it has been mentioned in previous articles )
President Dilma Rousseff has toured damaged areas in Nova Friburgo. ( this is news, we hadn't known about it until we started reading the article )
She vowed there would be "firm action" by the government. ( the simple past describes what she did during the tour, there's no need to use the present perfect )
Ms Rousseff was accompanied by Mr Cabral and other politicians and later left for Rio, where she is expected to give a news conference. ( same explanation as above )
Here's the link in case you want to see the article : http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-12180079

Thank you so much in advance!
  

Top answer

Hi, I've found an article dealing with floods and mudslides in Brazil, and I would be glad if you proved my comments right or wrong. Rio de Janeiro Governor Sergio Cabral blamed local governments for allowing poor building and illegal occupations. ( the fact that he blamed local governments is already known or it has been mentioned in previous articles ) No, there is no indication that we already knew this.

— Clive

  • Hi, I've found an article dealing with floods and mudslides in Brazil, and I would be glad if you proved my comments right or wrong.
  • Rio de Janeiro Governor Sergio Cabral blamed local governments for allowing poor building and illegal occupations.
  • ( the fact that he blamed local governments is already known or it has been mentioned in previous articles ) No, there is no indication that we already knew this.
  • It juststtes a fact about the past.
  • President Dilma Rousseff has toured damaged areas in Nova Friburgo.
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5 Answers
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Hi,
I've found an article dealing with floods and mudslides in Brazil, and I would be glad if you proved my comments right or wrong.


Rio de Janeiro Governor Sergio Cabral blamed local governments for allowing poor building and illegal occupations. ( the fact that he
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kane159has toured damaged areas ... this is news
Yes, but it's all news. None of it was previously known. There's nothing about its being news that distinguishes this sentence from any of the others.

I would interpret these sentences as a journalist's retelling of what he saw and heard. He mentions the tour of damaged areas to provide Ms Rous
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Thank you, CJ. It's so hard to understand the difference between these two, because my native language uses only three tenses ( simple, present, future), so it's difficult to distinguish tenses in English ( whether to use progressive or simple tense etc.)
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CalifJimMr Cabral blamed local governments. Action.
Ms Rousseff has toured damaged areas. Background fact.
Ms Rousseff vowed there would be "firm action". Action.
Ms Rousseff was accompanied by Mr Cabral. Circumstance.
Ms Rousseff later left for Rio. Action.
If I get it right, all
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kane159If I get it right, all three actions happened during the tour, right?
I would have said all three actions happened after the tour. That's how I read it. Nevertheless, it's not the only possible interpretation. The news article is not entirely clear about that.

CJ
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