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IMG Posted 12 years ago
Grammar

what is the difference?

I've ran into this sentence - "This is a presentation that all of us have looked forward to." And I just can't understand why they used Present Perfect here. Couldn't we say "...all of us looked forward to?"
  

Top answer

Either tense works. I would use the present perfect, myself. I might even use the progressive (we've been looking forward to) to further emphasize the length of time of expectation.

— Philip

  • Either tense works.
  • I would use the present perfect, myself.
  • I might even use the progressive (we've been looking forward to) to further emphasize the length of time of expectation.
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6 Answers
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Either tense works. I would use the present perfect, myself. I might even use the progressive (we've been looking forward to) to further emphasize the length of time of expectation.
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Oh, thanks. So it doesn't have any logical explanation; just something to remember.
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IMGSo it doesn't have any logical explanation; just something to remember.
Philip didn't say that. He said that you could use either.

This is a presentation that all of us looked forward to. This is possible but, in my opinion, the least likely. It suggests that the looking forward was in the past.

This is a presentation that all o
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I see now.
Maybe sentence "That was a presentation that we looked forward to." would be suitable for using "looked forward to".

Thank you for your explanation.
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No.

We are more likely to use the simple past for a past looking forward. It was announced that Chomsky was to give a presentation to the faculty at our Christmas 1969 conference. That was a presentation I looked forward to.
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Great explanation! Thank you a lot!
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