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Tenacious Learner Posted 14 years ago
Grammar
Present Perfect versus Simple Past
Hi teachers,
According to this sentence, 'She has studied Spanish.'
The speaker uses the present perfect, to say two things:
1. That the thing did happen.
2. That it has, in the speaker's mind, a particular relevance to the present.
How about this one, 'She studied Spanish.'
The speaker uses the simple past to say:
1. That the thing did happen.
That's all, isn't it?
Thanks in advance.
According to this sentence, 'She has studied Spanish.'
The speaker uses the present perfect, to say two things:
1. That the thing did happen.
2. That it has, in the speaker's mind, a particular relevance to the present.
How about this one, 'She studied Spanish.'
The speaker uses the simple past to say:
1. That the thing did happen.
That's all, isn't it?
Thanks in advance.
Top answer
In theory, yes.
- In theory, yes.
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22 Answers
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Hi Mister Micawber,
Thank you for your reply. There's always a big gap between theory and practice, isn't there?
Thank you for your reply. There's always a big gap between theory and practice, isn't there?
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Remember that all attempts to describe how we use tenses and aspects are just that - attempts With well over 350 million native speakers in the world, there must be, at an extremely conservative estimate indeed, 5 billion past/simple/present perfect sentences spoken and/or written every single day. If you think of the main varieties, those of the USA, the UK, Canada, Australia, Ireland and New Zea
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Hi fivejedjon,
Thank you for your reply.
Nothing to discuss about that. But when a student asks what the difference is in those two sentences, I have to give an answer that goes futher than those 5 billion past/simple/present perfect sentences spoken and/or written every single day. Don't you think so.
Thank you for your reply.
Nothing to discuss about that. But when a student asks what the difference is in those two sentences, I have to give an answer that goes futher than those 5 billion past/simple/present perfect sentences spoken and/or written every single day. Don't you think so.
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Sorry it should be, 'This is for me the closest explanation ...,'She has phoned him'.
TS
TS
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The first sentence (Present Perfect) has as much relevance to the present as Past Simple does. This is not exclusively Present Perfect's feature. You should better describe Present Perfect as:
1. The action completed.
2. It completed recently.
While Past Simple can be used to describe just any past action. For that reason it's called Simple.
1. The action completed.
2. It completed recently.
While Past Simple can be used to describe just any past action. For that reason it's called Simple.
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rinoceronteWhile Past Simple can be used to describe just any past action. For that reason it's called Simple.No. it's simple because it shows only tense; it does not additionally show an aspect such as progressive or perfect.
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rinoceronteIt completed recently.???
Many ice ages have come and gone since the formation of our planet.
CJ
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In this case you refer not to the actions of coming and going, but to their 'totalling' by the moment of speaking. The action of their accumulation is recent, that's the reason for Present Perfect to be used here. You won't be able to talk about EACH of those ice ages in Present Perfect.
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