In Simple past^x, Tenses^x

Following is from Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban The situation is that Harry Potter failed in the Quidditch game for the first time Harry put his face to his knees his hands gripping his hair Fred grabbed his shoulder and shook it roughly C mon Harry you ve never missed the Snitch...

Hi When the repair person A had completed her work B was fixing the PCs in our office she C put away her tools and D wrote out a bill for the supervisor The answer key says B is incorrect but doesn t tell me what to change so I think it could be corrected as follows 1 fixing2 to fix3 which was...

From what I remember from my grammar classes years ago the simple past is used for time specific events and the present perfect tense is used to refer to non time specific events general experiences As such is it incorrect to state the following I have already eaten my dinner or I ate my dinner...

quote user CalifJim It would take a very astute American listener indeed to notice anything amiss in a British speaker s use of the present perfect in any given situation I d bet that no American listener would ever say to himself How interesting I would have used the simple past there quote Of...

quote user YSchneider To me it sounds kind of odd quote Then use the other one Nobody s going to notice any difference anyway The imperative can t influence anything in the past so I associate a present tense or a present perfect tense with an imperative You see the simple past puts an imaginary...

quote user Yankee In other words a native speaker knows whether someone is saying somebody s or somebody What I m saying is that in the scenario I gave I think it is far more likely that an American will use the simple past tense There won t even be a slight hint of a sss sound connected to the...

quote user Huevos The difference between the simple past and the present perfect is just a slight Sss sound somebody shot the president versus somebody s shot the president quote Hi HuevosIf you are a native speaker then I m sure you also realize that a native speaker will understand whether...

Hi YvesI d say there are a couple of reasons for my personal preference of the present perfect in the examples you gave earlier 1 The past activities I m mentioning in the email probably took place extremely recently and the fact that I m currently writing about those very recent events provides...

quote user YSchneider Thank you I ve received your e mail OR Yves I ve spoken to my boss and he or Yves I ve forwarded your mail to our finance department and it will be processed soon quote Hi YSchneider It sounds like someone might have told you that Americans hardly ever use the present...

quote user Jackson6612 I believe it s splicing of the pictures frames which make the coin look as if it were moving on its own The clip shows the coin moving It does not make the coin look as if it was What do you say quote This strikes me as a philosophical question Suppose we place a coin on...