Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 06/17/2009 - 22:28.
This is not a good way to help explain the difference.
I'm American ESL teacher. The second sentence...'The man never saw the sea'...could, maybe mean that the man was trying to get to the ocean, but died before that happened. BUt it would depend. There's no context here...for anything, particularly not for the time frame.
I recommend that you go to Wikipedia.org and search 'present perfect'. This site is listed as a resource at the bottom. The idea of PRESENT perf in English has nothing to do with definite time or indefinite time, really, EVEN THOUGH it is true that 1)If definite time, then simple past (unless, say...progressive "He has been going there every Sunday, year in and year out." (Perfect and DEFINITE time))
Forget 'definite' and 'indefinite'. You use the PRESENT perfect to point out that you are interested less in what happened actually than in the consequences of that action on the present state of affairs. That's why we talk about 'present relevance or influence or importance to the present. The present perfect is a PRESENT tense; the time frame is NOW, not the past.
This is not a good way to help explain the difference.
I'm American ESL teacher. The second sentence...'The man never saw the sea'...could, maybe mean that the man was trying to get to the ocean, but died before that happened. BUt it would depend. There's no context here...for anything, particularly not for the time frame.
I recommend that you go to Wikipedia.org and search 'present perfect'. This site is listed as a resource at the bottom. The idea of PRESENT perf in English has nothing to do with definite time or indefinite time, really, EVEN THOUGH it is true that 1)If definite time, then simple past (unless, say...progressive "He has been going there every Sunday, year in and year out." (Perfect and DEFINITE time))
Forget 'definite' and 'indefinite'. You use the PRESENT perfect to point out that you are interested less in what happened actually than in the consequences of that action on the present state of affairs. That's why we talk about 'present relevance or influence or importance to the present. The present perfect is a PRESENT tense; the time frame is NOW, not the past.