By British English, Present perfect

Hi Newguest To me, the use of the word 'ago' pretty much rules out the use of the present perfect in your sentence. By the way, here is a sample sentence taken from the BNC (British National Corpus):"I made you one just a second ago."Although the word 'just' precedes...

Thank you Yankee for your detailed answer, but I'm still hopelessly confused about when to use the present perfect and when to use the simple past. You brought up an interesting point about the differences between American English and British English. I wonder if a Brit would find it more natural...

Hi, welcome to Englishforums. You can also use the search function to search the forum for interesting threads (there's a search button in the top right corner of every page). I would use "did", not "have". The simple past focus on something that happened and keeps that action...

Whoa! I missed that part (I once read the part about the present perfect in Practical English Usage, but I didn't notice the part you quoted). I think it's another of Swan's "bad things" you can find in its gramar book. I once thought Swan's grammar was a good one, then I started to read it and I...

Yoong Liat wrote:2. When we talk about the past, we use a past perfect tense after the same expressons.It was the third time that he had been in love that year.(NOT ... the third time he was ... )Whoa! I missed that part (I once read the part about the present perfect in Practical English Usage,...

Yeah, Tam is right when he criticize ESLese. ESLese is often the source of most ESL students. We are not confused by English, but by ESLese's rules. And Michael Swan, hahaha, I've never liked that guy. Ok, I hate him.Anyway, I think Amy is saying that however small, there are differences in the...

False assumption again. Believe it or not, I can and do read books and research, too. My personal exposure to Britons and British English has served to reinforce some of what I've read, and caused me to question other things. You apparently failed to notice that I made a point of saying "tend"...

Yoong Liat wrote: Did you see two blue bags which I left / had left on the table? Which verb in bold should I use? Thank you very much. Well, since YL in interested in British English, and since nobody mentioned this before, I think a native speaker would:- generally use present perfect instead...

I agree with Amy's comments. True, the conceptual time-wall seems absent in some uses of the simple past. But I claim it's always there somewhere, lurking in the back of our minds. her better than me. I have no idea if these usages occur in British English, but I suspect that they...

EyeSeeYou wrote:Nice explanation, Mr.P. Related to this topic, it always bugs me to come across phrases such as the following where Present Perfect should be chosen instead of Simple Past- Is there any explanation about it?: I just opened the door. I just looked at it. I just bought it.My...