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Ant_222 Posted 16 years ago
Grammar
Telling about a missed call
Hello, everybody
I am again having a Present Perfect/Past Simple dilemma. Imagine I want to tell somebody they have missed a call (right after they come back to office from lunch). How can I do it?
1. Mr. Smith called you and asked to call him back
2. Mr. Smith has called you and asked that you call him back.
3. You missed a call form mr. Smith.
4. You have missed a call from mr. Smith.
Are all of these variations OK? Are some of them better than others? Is it a matter of whether I am talking BrE of AmE?
Thanks in advance,
Anton
I am again having a Present Perfect/Past Simple dilemma. Imagine I want to tell somebody they have missed a call (right after they come back to office from lunch). How can I do it?
1. Mr. Smith called you and asked to call him back
2. Mr. Smith has called you and asked that you call him back.
3. You missed a call form mr. Smith.
4. You have missed a call from mr. Smith.
Are all of these variations OK? Are some of them better than others? Is it a matter of whether I am talking BrE of AmE?
Thanks in advance,
Anton
Top answer
Hi Anton, Before a native speaker voices her/his opinion, I'll tell you what I think if you don't mind. In this case I would choose the Past Simple tense, as I think that the sentence ("Mr. Smith called you and asked to call him back") does have a hidden "while you were out" reading, which states a definite time when the action took place (which is typical of the past simple).
- Hi Anton, Before a native speaker voices her/his opinion, I'll tell you what I think if you don't mind.
- In this case I would choose the Past Simple tense, as I think that the sentence ("Mr.
- Smith called you and asked to call him back") does have a hidden "while you were out" reading, which states a definite time when the action took place (which is typical of the past simple).
- Mr Smith called you ( while you were out ) and asked to call him back.
- By the way, 3 & 4 sound as something an answering machine would say.
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2 Answers
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Hi Anton,
Before a native speaker voices her/his opinion, I'll tell you what I think if you don't mind.
In this case I would choose the Past Simple tense, as I think that the sentence ("Mr. Smith called you and asked to call him back") does have a hidden "while you were out" reading, which states a definite time when the action took place (which is typical of the past simple).
Before a native speaker voices her/his opinion, I'll tell you what I think if you don't mind.
In this case I would choose the Past Simple tense, as I think that the sentence ("Mr. Smith called you and asked to call him back") does have a hidden "while you were out" reading, which states a definite time when the action took place (which is typical of the past simple).
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Hi!
Well, I'd say...
Mr. Smith called and asked youto call him back.
Well, I'd say...
Mr. Smith called and asked youto call him back.
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