Past Simple or Present Perfect?
Submitted by Admin on Sat, 01/03/2009 - 11:45.
When it comes to Past Simple and Present Perfect, I like to give the old example which goes as follows:
- This man has never seen sea.
- This man never saw sea.
What's the difference between the two sentences? The first one means the man hasn't had a chance to see sea. Well, maybe he is poor and just can't afford a trip... anyway, you can see that we're now talking about USE 3 "Actions which began in the past and continue in the present".
The second sentence is much different. The combination of "never" and past tense of "see" tells the listener that the action is finished -- the man is in a better place.
I hope that helps,
Mark
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.
Submitted by Guru (not verified) on Thu, 12/10/2009 - 15:10.
Dear Folks,
" I was explained in the previous mail" is this sentence right?
Hello,
In my opinion Past Simple and Present Perfect are one of the most easiest tenses. In your exercises I've done them with only one mistake.
But I really don't realize the differences between these 2 examples:
1.The world as I saw it. Past Simple
2.The world as I've seen it. Present Perfect
I've read through both tenses on this site and it says Past Simple means 'a specific time in the past' and Present Perfect means 'an indefinite time in the past' though I'm still lost...
Thanks a lot for your help!
Tom