Search results for 'tag:Simple present tag:Past simple' matching tags 'Simple present' and 'Past simple'

Re: Present Perfect (americans)

Anonymous — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 09:08:02 GMT

My friend from the previous answer said many things but did not answer your question!! By the way, the comparison is with the Simple Past, and not with the Simple Present. To keep things simple there are some basic situations when you should use the present perfect:
1- Something started in the past but has continued until now = (I've lived in NY for 10 years) I still live in NY!!
2- Something has happened but you don't say, don't know or it doesn't matter when that happened = (I've bought a new car) - Here the emphasis is on the action and not on when it happened, besides, there is a connection with now!! If you don't know when something happened, you should use the present perfect instead of the past simple. When = Past Simple (finished periods of time)
3- Something has just happened (my parents have just arrived!)

Basically, if you don't want to bother saying when things happened but focus on the action itself and not the moment, use the present perfect.

Action happened in a finished period of time = Past Simple

>>>> My brother got married yesterday>>>>>

Action happened in an unfinished period of time = Present Perfect

>>>> I've been to Europe twice>>>>> (in my life)

but

I went to Europe last year ( I told you when!!!)

Anyway, sorry for writing in layman's terms, I'm not a native speaker after all but I hope that helps!!!

Simple past or past simple

Anonymous — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 20:55:32 GMT

Hi everybody,

Why do all the Grammar books use the expressions "simple present" and "simple past", although all the other tenses start with the tense-marker and add the aspect-marker then: present progressive, present perfect, present perfect progressive, past progressive, past perfect, past perfect progressive.
Couldn't it be more logical to then say "present simple" and "past simple"?

Yours, D.S. Elfers

Simple past or past simple?

Anonymous — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 20:47:13 GMT

Hi everybody,

I'm a teacher of English at a German Grammar School and after 12 years of experience I'm still wondering about the following puzzle:
Why do all the Grammar books stick to the "confusing" expressions simple past and simple present, although it seems quite more logical to say past simple and present simple? I really prefer these expressions in my classes, because all the other tenses just start with the "tense marker" and go on with the "aspect marker": present progressive, present perfect, past progressive, past perfect.
Can I go on using my preferable expressions?

Yours, D.S. Elfers

Reported speech

Malinka — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 19:57:38 GMT

Hello everyone! I need your help. One of my books contains the following examples of the reported speech:
1) "Why is the world round?"asked the little girl.
The little girl wanted to know why the world was round.
2) "Smoking is bad for you", the teacher told us.
The teacher explained that smoking was bad for us.

I know that we do not usually change a simple present tense if the statement is always true. So my questions are:
1) Can I keep the present simple unchanged in the examples above, e.g. The little girl wanted to know why the world is round; e.g. The teacher explained that smoking is bad for us.

2) OR maybe both variants - the present and the past simple - are possible here.

Thanks in advance.
Please, give some explanations if you can.

Re: Present or past simple?

Avangi — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 20:58:42 GMT

Hi Marvin, Although you may intend to describe a general situation, your example seems quite special. You may have watched "Shane" in the simple past, but in terms of context it will continue in the simple present to be the last movie you watched, until you watch another. - A.

Re: What's the last movie you've seen?

Hoa Thai — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 16:18:11 GMT

Ant_222 wrote:
Hoa Thai:

Â«When I hear "What is the movie?" or "What was the movie?", my instinct tells me that the asker wants to know the title (an ever-lasting piece of information).Â»

(What was the last movie you saw)

Yes, but "was" implies a past moment (that of whatching the movie), and Present Perfect ("have seen") contradicts with it. In this case a Present Perfect clause cannot be subordinated to a Past Simple clause.

Using Present Perfect here is as incorrect as in Â«What have you been doing yesterday?Â»

Â«I can see other people's argument too.Â»

Seeing but not accepting?

Hi Ant,

I gave an example earlier to share my thought and please allow me to go over it again.

1. âHave you ever seen your great grandmother? By the way, what is her name?â

Present perfect goes with simple present â the great grandmother is known to be alive and well.

2. âHave you ever seen your great grandmother? By the way, what was her name?

Present perfect goes with simple past â the great grandmother is known to pass away 20 years ago.

That is the best I can explain why I think the way I do. You believe both verbs could be simple past â which I also agree (You can go ahead and replace the present perfect tense in the two sentences above with simple past and you got what you think is right).

If I cannot articulate my delivery, I accept my own weakness. However, I would suggest that you keep believing in yourself and allow me to trust my own opinion. I donât think you join the forum in order to win (or lose) - or do you?

Best wishes,
Hoa Thai

My First Question ..

The Graduate — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 11:39:04 GMT

Hi Guys,

I'm really happy to join your forums .. and I hope to spend useful and fun times with you

My question is ..

Can we ask a question in simple present tense which its answer is in past simple?

For example, I may ask a question that is to be true either in the present or the future time like What if you get married?

And the answer (which can be also one or more question to clarify the consequences) according to my understanding will be in past simple because the event of marriage is not yet fullfilled. Examples to answers to this question can be Would you be able to see your friends every day?, Would you change your habbit of sleeping late? and Would you be able to attend single men parties ?

Waiting to hear from you

Re: why only 2 tenses in english?

Case Assigner — Sun, 04 Mar 2007 14:48:09 GMT

Well, both notions are possible for these tenses. You often find Past Simple or Simple Past in grammars. In Germany we often call these tenses Simple Past and Simple Present..... I think itÂ´s only a matter of different names describing the same phenomena. Well, not really different names

Re: Changing Tenses

milky — Fri, 16 Feb 2007 05:48:39 GMT

Grammarian-bot wrote:
Recently I saw an ad of a multinationl company "Telenor". There was a sentenec that they repeat two or theree times in that 30 sec ad.

"It's time you moved to the best".

Is it gramatically correct to jump from simple present to simple past? If so, then what difference does it make to keep the sentence in the simple present. "It's time you move to the best".

GB

English is full of expressions in which the past tense is used not to indicate time, but for expressing the status of social relationships and/or possibility likelihood. Your sentence is one such example of using the past simple in such a way.

It's time to leave. (Direct. Not, normally, a suggestion. A fact.)

It's time we left. (Indirect. Often a suggestion.)

...

Re: Simple Present - Present Simple.

Matress — Tue, 05 Dec 2006 14:23:50 GMT

Clive wrote:

Hi,

Not really. It's just idiomatic.

Interestingly, I always see Present Continuous/Progressive, never Continuous/Progressive Present.

Best wishes, Clive

Yes, the difference happen only in Present Simple, Past Simple, Future Simple the others tenses are the same.

Present Perfect, Past Perfect... but I think Present Simple, Past Simple... make sense, if you write the other way it would be Perfect Present, Perfect Past.....and it does not make sense, isn't it?