Search results for 'tag:Present simple tag:American English' matching tags 'Present simple' and 'American English'

Re: Present Simple or Present Perfect?

Yankee — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 19:23:13 GMT

Hi Brunces

In this case, 'have got' means exactly the same thing as 'have'.

By the way, the present perfect of 'get' in American English would be 'have gotten'.

Re: Once you

b_smith_79 — Fri, 24 Jun 2005 00:54:17 GMT

Well, people will understand what you are saying either way, so no, you don't *have* to use present perfect, but I think it is a more accurate and natural usage. The prevalence of present simple for this construct in google probably has a lot to do with the dominance of American English on the web. American English tends to use the present perfect much less than Standard English, ie: "Did you finish your homework?" instead of "Have you finished your homework?".

So, no, in this case I don't see it as a hard and fast rule but I think it's definitely preferable, depending of course on context.

Re: American English subjunctive help

taiwandave — Mon, 14 Jun 2004 20:46:22 GMT

We use "think" in the past simple or past perfect tense to indicate a belief that was previously held but that has been shown to be incorrect. For example:

I didn't think she was going. (past simple)
I had thought that she wasn't going. (past perfect)

The exception is in converting from direct to reported speech:

"I think he's a terrible teacher," she said. (direct speech)
She said that she thought he was a terrible teacher. (reported speech)

In the above, her opinion has not changed. The verb "think" is used in the past tense because we customarily switch from present simple to past simple when changing from direct speech to reported speech.

The subjunctive mood is used to express a wish or to describe a condition that is contrary to fact. The verb form is the same as the indicative mood except that the form of the verb "be" is "were" for all persons. (The indicative mood is that used to make a statement or ask a question. The vast majority of English sentences are in the indicative mood.).

When you say, "I didn't think she was going," you are not using the subjunctive mood. You are not expressing something that is contrary to fact. You are making a factual statement using the indicative mood. The "fact" you are mentioning is your previously-held belief that she would not go. The reason for using "think" in the past tense is that new information has since come to light (i.e. that she is, after all, going).