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Anonymous Posted 15 years ago
Grammar
Present perfect versus past simple
Hi,
I am puzzled about this sentence (from Internet):
"He's come back to me in the past, only to change his mind and leave again."
Would it be a mistake to say,
"He came back to me in the past..."
Thank you!!!
Lena
I am puzzled about this sentence (from Internet):
"He's come back to me in the past, only to change his mind and leave again."
Would it be a mistake to say,
"He came back to me in the past..."
Thank you!!!
Lena
Top answer
" This is OK. To my mind, the Present Perfect's relevance to 'now' suggests the speaker thinks he is likely to do this again. ie That it is still part of his present character.
- " This is OK.
- To my mind, the Present Perfect's relevance to 'now' suggests the speaker thinks he is likely to do this again.
- ie That it is still part of his present character.
- " This is also correct, but does not have the same focus on the present situatuon.
- Clive
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1 Answers
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Hi,
I am puzzled about this sentence (from Internet):
"He's come back to me in the past, only to change his mind and leave again."
This is OK. To my mind, the Present Perfect's relevance to 'now' suggests the speaker thinks he is likely to do this again. ie That it is still part of his present charac
I am puzzled about this sentence (from Internet):
"He's come back to me in the past, only to change his mind and leave again."
This is OK. To my mind, the Present Perfect's relevance to 'now' suggests the speaker thinks he is likely to do this again. ie That it is still part of his present charac
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