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Anonymous Posted 15 years ago
Grammar

Present perfect or past simple?

I am trying to understand this:

'time and bad weather have destroyed the buildings but ten years ago they were beautiful'.

have destroyed is used since there is 'time' involved otherwisethere would be a past simple, is that correct? If so then is the question "what has happened to the buildings?" wrong? I would expect a past simple since no matter what or how it happened it did happe, in the past.

Please help,

Thanks
  

Top answer

-- No. Even without 'time', 'weather has destroyed the buildings' is fine and usual. " wrong?

— Mister Micawber

  • -- No.
  • Even without 'time', 'weather has destroyed the buildings' is fine and usual.
  • " wrong?
  • -- No, that is fine.
  • ' The question needn't mimic the answer's verb form (or vice versa).
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1 Answers
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have destroyed is used since there is 'time' involved otherwisethere would be a past simple, is that correct?-- No. Even without 'time', 'weather has destroyed the buildings' is fine and usual.

If so then is the question "what has happened to the buildings?" wrong? -- No, that is fine. So is 'What happened to the buildings?' The question needn't mimic the answer's verb form (
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