By Present perfect, Past tenses

As is the case with British English, whether an American uses the simple present or the present perfect often simply depends on how the speaker is viewing a past activity. That said, when either tense is possible according to the "usual rules", I think there is a noticeable tendency...

Hi,"She tells me that you're the one I shoud talk to. She has informed me that you are the single person capable of locaing the book.Teachers why do you have to use the present perfect form "has informed" in the second sentence. I wouldn't say that you have to use it in a...

Rule of thumb, don't use "since" with "ago" together. Since is used typically in present perfect tense, and ago is used in past tense.You can say " I have been suffering from insomnia for weeks. or I was suffering from insomnia 3 years ago.

Hi,I was listening to some types of speeches and have some questions.1.When someone says this, does he have to make it known that it is quoted? Not if he doesn't want to. Such 'rules' are not governed by grammar. A teacher, for example, may insist that a student identify every...

Hi,I was listening to some types of speeches and have some questions.1.When someone says this, does he have to make it known that it is quoted? I think the written version should be in quotation marks because not being in quotation marks doesn't make sense to me.Next time is later again.2.Can...

Hello, everyone: For the phrase "in the past", "during the past ten years..." , and "within these few days" I've check my dictionaries and searched in the Internet, and I found that they tend to use "present perfect". So I'm wondering if they could...

He bought a parrot that the seller said it would repeat every word he uttered. Contented, he went home and but later found it didn't say a word. Furious, he went back to the owner and asked him what had happened. The owner answered that he had not lied (didn't lie OK??) to the man. The...

He has been selected and has played for the team 5 times this year.He has played and scored for his team.Maybe it's as a result of the separation by selected in the first sentence, but for me it sounds better with has repeated.The second sentence, for me, sounds OK as it is.Sorry, I don't...

A has been sentenced to 10 years and has served 5 of them (so far).So you're saying that without has it sounds like served is in past tense instead of present perfect reusing the first 'has'.I interpret signed here as present perfect tense, borrowing the have before paid.What do you...

That's absolutely correct; we aren't specific as to when an action occured with the pres. perf. In this case, I think the implication is that I have been good for some time now, and last night, I even went to bed early.