IAmWithName2 wrote:

Hi all, Just when I thought I understood (almost) everything there is to know about the present perfect and the simple past I stumbled over a translation from Dutch I made --the problematic sentence is bold: ----- begin fragment ----- Seventeen-year-old Claire lives on her own in a studio in the provincial town of Angoulême, where she works as a cashier in a hypermarché.  She spends her little spare time designing and embroidering clothing. The flaming red-haired teenager has always had a troublesome relationship with her parents and  ran away from home when she became pregnant. Claire works hard and has little contact with her colleagues. Accidentally, she comes into contact with Madame Mélikian, an older woman who has an embroidery studio where she makes dresses for top designers from Paris. ----- end fragment ----- Is the sentence "The flaming ... pregnant" correct? I first wanted to use the simple past for all the verbs, because of the Adverbial Phrase "when she became pregnant". But then I remembered that "always" is a marker for the present perfect. So that's why I have mixed tenses in my main clauses, which seems awkward. Can anyone shed some light on the grammar of this sentence? Thanks a lot, JJ S

The mixed tenses are ok as long she's had this troublesome relationship up to the present time. In other words, regardless of leaving home, she can still have a troublesome relationship with her parents if she still sees them, of course, but that depends on the story.

Clive wrote:

Hi, Seventeen-year-old Claire lives on her own ....The flaming red-haired teenager has always had a troublesome relationship with her parents and  ran away from home when she became pregnant. Is the sentence "The flaming ... pregnant" correct? Yes. It seems fine to me, quite stylish. I first wanted to use the simple past for all the verbs, because of the Adverbial Phrase "when she became pregnant". You could use Simple Past. However, the Present Perfect tells me the troublesome relationship continued up to the present time. The Simple Past doesn't tell me that. So, it depends on what you mean to tell me. But then I remembered that "always" is a marker for the present perfect. I don't see anything wrong with saying 'She always had a troublesome relationship ...' So that's why I have mixed tenses in my main clauses, which seems awkward. I don't know why you think mixed tenses are awkward. 'I have loved you since the day I met you, and I will always love you'. Rather nice, really.  Best wishes, Clive   Well said Clive, well said!

Hi all,

Clive and Jussive, thank you!

It is all a lot clearer now.

It seems that my original sentence ("The flaming red-haired teenager has always had a troublesome relationship with her parents and  ran away from home when she became pregnant.') conveys what I meant it to. I think that the relationship is troublesome up till now, so the present perfect seems to be appropriate.

Clive wrote:

>>I don't know why you think mixed tenses are awkward. 'I have loved you since the day I met you, and I will always >>love you'. Rather nice, really.

I think you are quite right. I am afraid that all those present perfect/simple past exercises I have been doing lately contain rather unnatural examples, which led me in the wrong direction. The only thing I am still a bit unsure about is whether in the Dutch text the present perfect expresses ongoing  trouble. But that's off-topic. Fortunately, English is a lot more precise in this respect!

Jussive wrote:

>>'Always' doesn't have to go with the present perfect

I don't know why I thought that. Thanks for correcting me.