Search results for 'tag:Simple present tag:Simple past' matching tags 'Simple present' and 'Simple past'

Sorry, that seat's taken.

Avangi — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 04:50:01 GMT

Hi,
Why would we consider the participle an adjective in the simple present and a verb in the present perfect?
Sorry, that seat's been taken.

What do we call it in the simple past?
Sorry, that seat was taken.

Is there no passive in the simple present? What am I missing? (I am devastated!)

Many thanks, - A.

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!!!

Re: Simple past or past simple

Anonymous — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 23:32:17 GMT

Google:

71,300 English pages for "the present simple".
42,700 English pages for "the simple present".

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

Re: Names of different tenses

CalifJim — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 16:23:08 GMT

Here are some Present - Past pairs:

Simple present - Simple past [He takes. He took.]

Present progressive - Past progressive [He is taking. He was taking.]

Present perfect - Past perfect [He has taken. He had taken.]

Present perfect progressive - Past perfect progressive [He has been taking. He had been taking.]

(Simple) Future (of the Present) (will) - ( Simple) Future of the Past (would) [He will take. He would take.]

Future (of the Present) progressive - Future (of the Past) progressive [He will be taking. He would be taking.]

Future (of the Present) perfect - Future (of the Past) perfect [He will have taken. He would have taken.]

Future (of the Present) perfect progressive - Future (of the Past) perfect progressive [He will have been taking. He would have been taking.]

(Future of the Past -- (with would)-- is also called "Conditional".)

(Progressive is also called Continuous.)

Caution: Not all discussions of tense use the same names for the tenses.

Re: Names of different tenses

Raen — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 16:06:59 GMT

Thank you so much CB, I'm taking them all in now. But,

In the one sentence you crossed out the word "had", I was taught it had to be present to differentiate the order of occuraces or actions taken place in a sentence that has more than 1 clause. Let me expand on it by ways of examples:

He has taken the job as we speak. -- has taken (perfect tense) happens before speak (simple present)

He had taken the job before he moved here -- had taken (past perfect) happens before moved (simple past)

and in conditionals (I'm learning now that's what it's called):

He would have completed the task if he asked for help -- would have completed (perfect conditional) used for asked (simple past)

and this is what I was taught that's tricky,

He would have had completed the task if he had asked for help before he left work -- would have had completed used for had asked (past perfect) that happens before left (simple past)

Is it false then? "would have + (past perfect)" doesn't exist?

Thank you.

Raen

Re: grammar question?

Avangi — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 16:49:30 GMT

(1) (Use simple present, "don't.") The album is eternal, so to speak, and critics may continue to make comments in the present, eg., the album does have enjoyable moments.

(2) Use "joined." All the other comments here are in simple past. "Go" doesn't really have a tense here. It's the bare infinitive. They let him [to] go. The sentence is in simple past because of "let."

People sometimes use present tense for a narrative like this but at this stage you should avoid mixing tenses unless you have a good reason to do so.

(3) Yes. It's simple present tense, 3rd person singular: "it guarantees."

(4) It's your choice. The band is singular but the members are plural. When you say "whose band" it leans a little toward singular, "whose band was playing."

(5) while it was still pliable enough to be shaped.

(6) Has is correct. (I would think "influential in the prevailing sound" or "influential in creating the prevailing sound" or "has a guitar player had so great an influence on the prevailing sound" - I don't know - I'm not happy with any of them. Maybe someone else will have an idea.)

Re: Can we replace WOULD by WAS in such a sentence?

Avangi — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 15:06:45 GMT

mbouti has a point here. The crazy tenses in the OP excerpt set the present tense as the time when TR was/is six years old watching Lincoln's funeral procession. Therefore, the equivalent should be, "who would one day become his second wife" would be equal to, "who is one day to be/become his second wife."

"Who would one day become" only shows contextually that the "becoming" will take place at some time after the scene with TR as a six-year-old. "Who would one day become" will not change, whether the six-year-old scene is in simple present or simple past. The alternate version, however, must change.  Simple past: was to become   /   simple present: is to become

past:     would be = was to be

present: would be = is to be

Re your original question about the substitution, in my opinion the meaning would not change. The added alteration is not to the context, but to the passive verb form, which makes use of the infinitive. I understand "context" here as the real meaning of the sentence (from another thread).

- A.

Re: hate vs would hate

Avangi — Sun, 24 Aug 2008 04:01:55 GMT

Your examples seem to show that you understand it well.

In simple present you actually feel the hate and do the deed. I hate to embarrass you like this. Since hate can have some duration, you could use present continuous. I'm hating every minute of this.

In simple past, I hated taking the toy away from him, but he needed to get some sleep.

When you add the "would," it always seems to be a conditional situation. If I were to lose you, I would hate it. I'd hate to lose you.

- A.