recenlty - I've seen or I saw

Hi,

Two sentences:
"The film which I saw recently..."
or
"The film which I have seen recently..."

What is the difference, which one is correct and why?

Let me begin by asking you to consider two simpler examples.

I saw a film.

I have seen a film.

Do you know what the difference is between t

Well, the first one refers to time and the second one speaks about the fact that I've seen such a movie whether it was yesterday or a year ago. But in my example that is not the case (at least that is what i'm thinking now... that is why i asked this question).

Hi,

Two sentences:
"The film which I saw recently..."
or
"The film which I have seen recently..."

What is the difference, which one is correct and why?

OK. #1 is correct because it simply tells me a "past fact" about the movie.

#2 is odd, because the Present Perfect makes me get ready for a fact that relates to the presen

It doesn't sound odd to me, Clive. Maybe my ears are just out of whack.

As in: Do you remember those old driver's ed movies? They were terrible. But the the driver's ed films that I've seen recently (now that I'm working with student drivers) are so much better!

Although the original used the singular film, something that you probably see once, and then it's over, while my exampl

Hi GG,

Yes, I agree, the use of the plural makes it sound OK. It makes it more of a general statement and less of a reference to an isolated past event.

Clive

present tense, see. I can see it over there. past tense, saw. I saw him in the park yesterday. past perfect - had seen it before, or, I have seen him many times. I had seen him when I went to the park. Simple past tense would be I saw him when I went to the park. All verbs have three tenses. With some verbs, two of the tenses may use the same form of the vowel. For instan