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Atinesh Posted 13 years ago
Grammar

Present perfect Tense ?

Hi friends,
I was reading Unit 13 of English Grammar In Use-Raymond Murphy and I got confused with one line.
"Do not use the present perfect if the situation now is different"
I didn't understand the meaning of this line, there were some examples explaining it

Example 1

->They've gone away. They'll be back on friday. (they are away now)
->They went away, but I think they're back at home now. (not they've gone)

Example 2

->It has stopped raining now, so we don't need the umbrella. (it isn't raining now)
->It stopped raining for a while, but now it's raining again. (not it has stopped)

Please tell me how the situation now is different in the second sentence of the above two examples.
  

Top answer

I think the sentences themselves answer that question as well as any explanation does. " -- previously they were away, but now they are at home (as far as the speaker understands). "It stopped raining for a while, but now it's raining again" -- previously it was not raining, but now it is raining.

— Anonymous

  • I think the sentences themselves answer that question as well as any explanation does.
  • " -- previously they were away, but now they are at home (as far as the speaker understands).
  • "It stopped raining for a while, but now it's raining again" -- previously it was not raining, but now it is raining.
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36 Answers
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I think the sentences themselves answer that question as well as any explanation does.

"They went away, but I think they're back at home now." -- previously they were away, but now they are at home (as far as the speaker understands).

"It stopped raining for a while, but now it's raining again" -- previously it was not raining, but now it is raining.
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If you compare the first sentence to the second sentence in each example, the first sentence describes a situation (e.g. "They have gone away") which will change in the future ("but they will come back on Friday"). The second sentence describes a situation which has already changed ("They went away, but they are back at home now").

What he is saying is that you shouldn't use the pr
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I didn't get it can u please elaborate
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yeah, tenses are a bit problematic to me also...and I am approx. 10 units ahead of you Emotion: big smile
well from my understanding, present
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hi the correct sentence it has been raining.
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that means the situation is not true anymore. Use present perfect tense for situations that started in the past and still true at present. Example: "She has been a teacher since I was a child." That means... until now, she is still a teacher. Use the simple past form if the situation happened in the past and at present it is different. Example: "She was a teacher when I was a child." That means s
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Anonymous hi the correct sentence it has been raining.
Please start a new thread for unrelated questions. Remember that capital letters are important to proper English, and so is punctuation.
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Hi friends, thanx for all your help. I think, I almost got the concept. We can not use the present perfect, if the past situation is different from the present situation. But I'm just confused with this example

It has stopped raining now, so we don't need the umbrella. (it isn't raining now)

How here past situation is different from the present situation, can any body explain it.
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The "stopped" status of the rain is the current status.
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BarbaraPA, but this sentence doesn't specifies rains past situation. so, how we can compare past situation with present situation.
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