milky  +  304031 Fri, 15 Dec 06 01:13 AM Over time, the present perfect has increased in use over the preterite in German, French and some other languages to a position where it now clearly dominates. In English too, the present perfect increased in use over the preterite from the days of Old English, through Middle English and up to the beginning of the Modern English period. But what about today? Which form dominates in English? Some would say that the present perfect is on the wane or even redundant in contemporary English. Would you agree with those people? milky Joined on Thu, Jan 15 2004 Senior Member 3,149 Hume said that if we had perfect or complete descriptive knowledge of reality, we could not, by reasoning, derive a single valid "ought". Present Perfect

	milky  +  304162 Fri, 15 Dec 06 11:13 AM <This form is considered bad English.> By whom? I'm told that is accepted as standard. <It's interesting to note that the artificial language Ido at first did not have perfect tenses they were introduced by popular demand.> Yes, interesting. The thing is, the AE use of the preterite, where BE would normally use the present perfect, cannot connect past and present without reliance on adverbs, or more context. The present perfect does connect past and present. milky Verbs, Tenses, Whom, Adverbs, Present Perfect

	milky  +  304178 Fri, 15 Dec 06 11:52 AM I just found/I've just found ( ) this: "The present perfect is more frequent in British English and the preterite more frequent in American English. The claims often made to that effect have been amply confirmed." The Use of the Perfect and the Preterite and in Present-day English, by Johan Elsness. Source used: LOB/BUC corpora. milky American English, British English, Present Perfect, Images