Search results for 'tag:Present perfect tag:Difference between' matching tags 'Present perfect' and 'Difference between'

Grammar doubts, please!

Anonymous — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 13:50:52 GMT

Hi, there!

Here are my doubts. Could you help me, please?

- He (write) a composition since lunch time. In this kind of sentence I could use e.g. the * Present Perfect Progressive:

- He has been writting a composition since lunch time. In this case since is a starting point and the verb tense shows an action that started in the past and continues up to the present moment, isn't it?

   But I think I could also use the Present Perfect Simple e.g.: "He has written a composition since lunch time." If so, I believe that there is not a difference between these two verb tenses, but only that the * first reinforces the continuity of the action up to the present moment, isn't it?

And in: "It (rain) all morning." I believe that I can say:

"It has rained all morning" (Present Perfect Simple here gives an idea that the action finished already because it's afternoon now, for example);

           or

"It has been raining all morning." (Present Perfect Progressive here if we want to emphasize that it started raining in the morning and it is still raining = We are still in the morning).

Thanks for the help (I hope my thought be right),

  Sakamura

Present Perfect Vs. Simple Past

Magic79 — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 13:57:05 GMT

In an excellent advanced grammar book, Exploring Grammar in Context by Carter & Hughes & McCarthy, this exercise was given on the present perfect.

(page 7, exercise 4, item c)

Choose between the present perfect and past simple tneses for the verbs in brackets. If you think both are equally possible, write both forms.

c) I [buy] a personal stereo but I [sell] it to my teenage duaghter as it [look] silly on me at my age.
My answer:
bought, have sold, looked (all simple past except for sell in the present perfect)
The book answer:
bought, sold, looked (all simple past)

Ofcourse, I want to know why I got it wrong. The reason behind my choice of the present perfect is that it seems that selling the stereo is what needs to be emphasized and brought to the foreground (page 4 under observations says: The examples we have looked at so far point to a difference between (a) things that we want to bring to the foreground and say ' This is newor important or relevant or connected in some way in my mind to NOW ' and (b) things that we want to report/narrate or simply to say ' This is not important any more, or not relevant to now, or I have chosen to separate it in my mind from now.'

Will any native speaker choose my answer without being frown at?

Re: Present Perfect Vs Past Perfect

Clive — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 16:16:25 GMT

Hi,

Could someone help me understand the difference between Present Perfect and Past Perfect ? As far as I know in both tenses are used when an action begins in the past but continues into the present / holds relevance in the present.

You'll find a lot of discussion on the Forum about these Perfect tenses, if you use 'Search'. However, here are a couple of simple comments for you to begin by considering.

As you know, use Present Perfect when an action has some relevance to the present.
eg I have passed my driver's test, so I'd like to borrow your car.

Use Past Perfect when an action has some relevance to a later point in the past.
eg He had an accident last Thursday. He had passed his driver's test.

eg Tom came home at 7pm. Mary cooked dinner. She cooked it after 7pm.
eg Tom came home at 7pm. Mary had cooked dinner. She cooked it before 7pm.

Best wishes, Clive

Present Perfect Vs Past Perfect

nands_krish — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 15:58:04 GMT

Hi,

Could someone help me understand the difference between Present Perfect and Past Perfect ? As far as I know in both tenses are used when an action begins in the past but continues into the present / holds relevance in the present.

Thanks...
N

Re: Written english vs spoken english

CalifJim — Thu, 14 Aug 2008 17:24:45 GMT

Yankee
Depending on the personalities and experience of the teachers involved, that's probably the most likely time that someone might just blurt out "So-and-so said such-and-such incorrectly", don't you think?

I think my problem is watching too much Masterpiece Theatre. I'm so used to hearing British English that few of the differences even register anymore. I may be incorrectly attributing my reaction to that of others. The subtlety of the difference between present perfect and simple past, in many cases, such as those we've been discussing, is often lost on me, so my reaction is impatience. "What's the big deal?" I ask. "Just pick one and move on!"

Re: Written english vs spoken english

YSchneider — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 05:13:05 GMT

Hi Yankee or any other Americans!

I just wonder if it's in the end not a difference between written and spoken enlish. Because if been told that if you call your mom after an exam it's far more likely to tell her: I passed the exam then I've passed the exam(at least in the States)

So is the usage of the present perfect as mentioned at the beginning just a way to start a letter or an e-mail?

Re: Written english vs spoken english

Yankee — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 00:20:21 GMT

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".

Hi Huevos
If you are a native speaker, then I'm sure you also realize that a native speaker will understand whether that 'sss' sound is there or not. 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 end of the word 'somebody' -- because it just won't be there.

As regards "I ate already", Americans commonly use the words already, yet, and just (for example) with the simple past tense -- especially in spoken English:

- Did you see that movie yet?
- I just saw that movie.
- I already saw that movie./I saw that movie already.

Naturally, we use already, yet, and just with the present perfect as well.

Re: Written english vs spoken english

Huevos — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 21:56:18 GMT

Yankee
"The president has been shot!"

Yankee, that's passive. 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".

Re: Present Perfect (americans)

CalifJim — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 19:27:48 GMT

New2grammar
CJ, If you don't mind, could you give me context for both of the versions? I don't see any difference between them.

Frankly, I don't see any difference either, so I just threw darts and picked that one at random. I have no fancy academic explanations for you!

(See my next post.)

Re: Present Perfect (americans)

Diamondrg — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 07:40:10 GMT

Hi, YSchneider. I am not a native speaker and this is indeed a tough grammar point for non-native speakers.

Here is an extract from CGEL*:

Did you lock the front door? [5]

in a domestic situation where it is known that the front door is locked at bedtime every night. In that case, [5] is more or less equivalent to Did you
lock the front door at bedtime? (Incidentally, in [5], "the" in "the front door" is another case of situational definiteness; cfS.Uff.)

--

The ATTITUDINAL PAST, used with verbs expressing volition or mental state, reflects the tentative attitude of the speaker, rather than past time.
In the following pairs, both the present and past tenses refer to a present state of mind, but the latter is somewhat more polite:

Do/Did you want to see me now?
I wonder/wondered if you could help us.

--

Where did you put my purse ? [ 1 ]
Where have you put my purse? [2]

The purpose of both of these questions may be to find the purse; but in [1] the speaker seems to ask the addressee to remember a past action; while in [2] the speaker apparently concentrates on the purse's present whereabouts. There are many such cases.

--

Leaving aside such virtual equivalences, we may now focus on the difference between the two constructions, contrasting the meanings of the simple past given in 4.14 with the following meanings of the simple present perfective:

(a) STATE LEADING UP TO THE PRESENT

That house has been empty for ages.
Have you known my sister for long?

(b) INDEFINITE EVENT(S) IN A PERIOD LEADING UP TO THE PRESENT

Have you (ever) been to Florence?
All our children have had measles.

(c) HABIT (ie recurrent event) IN A PERIOD LEADING UP TO THE PRESENT

Mr Terry has sung in this choir ever since he was a boy.
The province has suffered from disastrous floods throughout its history.

Of these meanings, (a) corresponds to the 'state past' use of the simple past, but differs from it in specifying that the state continues at least up to the present moment (cf: That house was empty for ages - but now it's been sold); (b) corresponds to the 'event past', but differs from it in that the past time in question is indefinite rather than definite (cf: Did you go to Florence (last summer) ?); (c) corresponds to the 'habitual past', but, as with (a), the period identified must continue up to the present.

Note In AmE there is a tendency to use the past tense in preference to the present perfective, especially for the indefinite past; eg: Did you ever go to Florence ? (c/4.13 Note lb], 4.22 Note [a ]).

--

Have you seen the Javanese Art Exhibition? [yet]
Did you see the Javanese Art Exhibition? [when it was here]

The first of these implies that the Exhibition is still open; the second that the Exhibition has finished. From this concern with a period still existing at the present time, it is only a short step to the second implication often associated with the present perfective, viz that the event is recent. The simple present perfective is often used to report a piece of news:

_., , > the news? The president has resigned.

Because of this connotation of recency, B's reply in the following exchange must be considered absurdly inappropriate:

A: Has the postman left any letters? B: Yes, he did six months ago.

Since postmen in general deliver letters daily, the implicit time zone in this case would be no longer than a day.

[Note] In AmE, the simple past is often preferred to the present perfective for the variants of the indefinite past discussed in this section. Compare [6 ], for example, with Did the children come home yet? <esp AmE). Other AmE examples are: I just came back; You told me already; and without an adverb: /*m tired -1 had a long day.

* A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language (Quirk et al.]