Simple Past: being explicit about the time reference ?

Question

0Is it "compulsory" to specify the time you're talking about (for example 'last year', 'yesterday', 'two days ago', etc.) in the Past Simple tense? I've seen many sentences in written and spoken English that lacked a time reference. 0-

MrPedantic · Accepted Answer

0I read ICU's post. It posed an interesting question. Was it compulsory, to use an adverbial of time, with the past simple? I thought through a few examples. I read a few paragraphs from a book chosen at random from the nearest bookshelf. I googled up a few webpages, and examined various people's opinions on various subjects. Seemingly not. As far as I could see, the past simple functioned perfectly adequately, without a specific time reference.02br
02br
00But had I missed something?02br
02br
00I decided to reserve judgement. Perhaps another poster would know better...02br
02br
00MrP0-

EyeSeeYou · Answer

0Nice explanation, Mr.P. Related to this topic, it always bugs me to come across phrases such as the following where Present Perfect should be chosen instead of Simple Past- Is there any explanation about it?:02br
02br
01i00I just opened the door.02i02br
02br
01i00I just looked at it.02i02br
02br
01i00I just bought it.02i0-

BarbaraPA · Answer

0EyeSeeYou, why do you think they should be present perfect?02br
02br
00A: What cute shoes!02br
02br
00B: Thank you. I just bought them. But I think they are going to make my feet hurt!02br
02br
00A: Okay, bread, milk... what about eggs? Do we need eggs?02br
02br
00B: Let me see how many we have.02br
02br
00A: Well, do we need them?02br
02br
00B: Hold on a second, would you? I just opened the refrigator door! I can't tell yet.0-

Kooyeen · Answer

0 01blockquote

01cite10EyeSeeYou12cite10Nice explanation, Mr.P. Related to this topic, it always bugs me to come across phrases such as the following where Present Perfect should be chosen instead of Simple Past- Is there any explanation about it?: 12br
11i10I just opened the door.12i12br
12br
11i10I just looked at it.12i12br
12br
11i10I just bought it.12i10My teachers in school taught me that it was "I've just done something" and never "I just did something", it would have been a mistake. That was because they wanted to pretend they knew English well and wanted to pretend they were able to teach it.12br
10I then found out that in British English the present perfect is preferred and probably more used, in American English the past simple is much more common, so Americans usually say "I just saw her" instead of "I've just seen her".12br
12br
12blockquote

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Goodman · Answer

0 01blockquote

01cite10Kooyeen12cite11blockquote
11cite20EyeSeeYou22cite20Nice explanation, Mr.P. Related to this topic, it always bugs me to come across phrases such as the following where Present Perfect should be chosen instead of Simple Past- Is there any explanation about it?: 22br
22br
21i20I just opened the door.22i22br
22br
21i20I just looked at it.22i22br
22br
21i20I just bought it.22i22br
22br
21font20My teachers in school taught me that it was "I've just done something" and never "I just did something", it would have been a mistake. 22font22br
22br
20Well, it sounds perfect fine to me if some one says "I 21font20just told22font20 you a few seconds ago not to touch it!" 22br
22br
20Or, I 21font20just saw22font20 her leaving the office before you walked in ..."22br
22br
22blockquote
22blockquote

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CalifJim · Answer

0 Kooyeen,02br
02br
00 Were there any other adverbs with this property (nearly always require a perfect tense in BrE)? Or just 01i00just02i00? I'd be interested, because I think there are several. I believe 01i00already02i00 is another, for example.02br
02br
00 CJ0-

BarbaraPA · Answer

0Hmm... for some reason, 01i00already 02i00seems to sound funny without present perfect, but 01i00just02i00 is okay with simple past.02br
02br
00Is it standard American to use simple past with 01i00already02i00? 0-

CalifJim · Answer

0 I don't know what standard American is anymore!02br
00 Nevertheless, I've heard people use the simple past with 01i00already02i00, and I may be one of them!02br
02br
01i00-- Did you water the garden?02br
00 -- I already did that, so you can s02i00top your harping now.02br
00 -- Well, what about these shirts? When are you going to take them to the drycleaner's?02br
00 -- I already told you. I can't do that until Tuesday. They're closed Monday.02br
02br
00 CJ0-

BarbaraPA · Answer

0 01blockquote

01cite10CalifJim12cite10I don't know what standard American is anymore!12br
12br
12blockquote

10Likewise! Your examples sound totally normal to me now. 02br
02br
00What about:02br
02br
00- Let's go see 01i00Charlotte's Web02i00.02br
00- I already saw it OR I've already seen it0-

Kooyeen · Answer

0 01blockquote

01cite10CalifJim12cite10Kooyeen,12br
12br
10 Were there any other adverbs with this property (nearly always require a perfect tense in BrE)? Or just 11i10just12i10? I'd be interested, because I think there are several. I believe 11i10already12i10 is another, for example.12br
12blockquote

10I was told "just, yet, already, ever, never" had to be used with perfect tenses. A sentence like "Did you ever see that movie" instead of "Have you ever seen that movie" wouldn't have been accepted at all. So I never heard of anything like "I just saw it" until I started to learn (American) English by myself.02br
02br
00As far as I know (what I found out), perfect tenses are actually the usual ones for those adverbs in BrE. In AmE, you can use either perfect tenses or the simple past for all of those adverbs. The past simple is very common especially for "just". My personal choices are (my style):02br
01i01b00just02b02i00 - always with past simple (I just saw it)02br
01i01b00yet 02b02i00- always with perfect tenses. (I haven't seen it yet)02br
01i01b00already02b02i00 - with both perfect tenses and past simple. (I've already seen it - I already checked it)02br
01i01b00ever and never02b02i00 - practically always with perfect tenses.02br
02br
01b01u00To Barbara:02u02b00 I was going to say that "I've already seen it" was better, before I did a little search on Myspace (informal English source) and found out that "I already saw it" is even more common. So both should sound alright.02br
01u01b01font02br
00Strange facts I noticed02font02b02u02br
00It seems some expressions just sounds better with some tenses instead of others. 02br
00One example could be "This is the best thing I've ever seen", instead of "...I ever saw". However, I know the simple past is sometimes used, and I'm sure I once heard "Look! This is the biggest tire I ever saw".02br
02br
00Other examples could be the verbs "know" and "think". You usually say "I always knew", I already knew", "I never thought"...02br
01u00The only difference is between 01i01b00"I never knew"02b02i00 (implies that now I know) and 01i01b00"I've never known"02b02i00 (implies that I still don't know)02u00. All the others don't imply anything, context will make things clear. Examples:02br
02br
01i01b00Yeah! You did it! I always thought you were the best!02b02i00 (I still think you are the best, even though I used the simple past instead of the present perfect) 01i01b00...I never thought you were a loser!02b02i00 (and I still don't think you are)02br
02br
01i01b00Oh, come on! What a loser you are! I always thought you were the best!02b02i00 (That's what I used to think before I saw what a loser you are) 01b01i00...I never thought you were a loser, but... 02i02b00(I'm starting to think you are not so good at doing that)02br
02br
00This trick (that is, using simple past instead of present perfect, even with "always") works for other verbs too, but I think it's more common with "think" and "know".02br
02br
00That's all. Let me know if I said something odd in this post, or if you disagree. That's the way I see it, I'd like to avoid seeing it the wrong way 050010id5

Simple Past: being explicit about the time reference ?

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