In our country we don't have present perfect form, so it is difficult for us to understand 'present perfect' exactly.  ex)  It has rained for two hours.  In this sentence Is it raining now? or It stopped raining now?
74249
The sentences are:   Mary has worked as a teacher for over 25 years. It has rained heavily for 2 hours.   Does it mean "Mary" is still working as a teacher or she is no longer working now? Does it mean it is still raining or it stopped?  Since it cannot mean both, so how to suggest either one of the meanings?
35947
As a non-native speaker but a teacher of the English language I've come across the following question reading a pupil's report: Should she use the simple past or past perfect in her sentence?     Last week we came back from a class trip to New York. We planned (OR) had planned that trip half a year ago.   (meaning: half a year before NOW)   Although we teach that ago is a signal word for simple past, I would go for past perfect here, since the action of the second sentence clearly takes place before the first one and before the rest of what the report is about (the class trip itself).  How would a native speaker put it?
81595
I have this example in my practice book where I need to use the Past Simple or Present Perfect:     My grandfather died before I was born. I have never met him.   The right answer is "I never met him".  Shouldn't we use the Present Perfect with "never"?
95853
Did your team win the football match yesterday?         The weather was very bad, so we weren't playing.   vs     The weather was very bad, so we didn't play.   Is the first one not correct? Why is it?
577
Non-na­tive speak­ers of­ten get con­fused about what the var­i­ous tens­es  and as­pects mean in English. With in­put from some of the folk here I've put to­geth­er a di­a­gram that I hope will pro­vide some clar­i­ty on the mat­ter.  I of­fer it as the first an­swer to this ques­tion. Con­sid­er it a liv­ing doc­u­ment. In­put is wel­come, and good sug­ges­tions will be  in­cor­po­rat­ed in­to the di­a­gram.    No­ta bene: What this is not is a dis­cus­sion of whether there are  more than two tens­es in English. , to which this ques­tion is not in­tend­ed to sup­ply ar­gu­ments one way or the oth­er.  Here, the aim is to pro­vide an overview of what con­struc­tions English-speak­ing peo­ple use for con­vey­ing in­for­ma­tion about ac­tions re­fer­ring to past, present, and fu­ture, and to pro­vide it first and fore­most to pre­cise­ly the peo­ple who are like­ly to use "tense" as a catch-all term in their search, rather than to lin­guists who know bet­ter.  Break­ing News There is now an ex­cel­lent ELU blog ar­ti­cle ti­tled  . It is high­ly rec­om­mend­ed read­ing.
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Lyircs of Free by Natalia Kills:     I'm free      I just spent all my money       but I rocked that like it don't cost a thing   Shouldn't it be "I've just spent all my money"? As far as I remember, our English told us to use Present Prefect in such case because of the just.
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What's the difference between the following examples:   I noticed that the clock had stopped.  I noticed that the clock has stopped.    Some of them say that if the emphasis is laid on the subordinate clause then present perfect tense can be used, while some say if the emphasis is laid on 'noticing' then past perfect tense is to be used. How correct is this explanation?
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I'm currently working at a private academy in Korea, and my boss just asked me a real head-scratcher.   In the sentence:     It doesn't have to be hot and humid for players to lose too much water from their bodies.    I'm aware that "It" is a subject pronoun replacing "The weather." Besides that, however, I'm unsure.   Is it a false subject? I wouldn't think so since it's a pronoun. Is it some crazy kind of indirect object?  Anyway, thank you all for your help!
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This  states that:  When you use the present perfect tense you have to be talking about a period of time that you still consider to be going on. For example, if it’s still morning, you can say, &quot;I’ve shaved this morning.&quot; If it is afternoon or evening, all of a sudden &quot;I’ve shaved this morning&quot; sounds really weird.  &quot;I've shaved this morning&quot; sounds more like past perfect, and indication of specific time (in the morning) makes this sentence incorrect.  Am  I spot on? Then what is the difference between the construct of past perfect, present perfect and future perfect?
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Consider these examples:   By now the desk should be looking significantly tidier!  By now, the failure of regulators to contain dangerous forces should be well accepted.  By now I own some forty copies of the magazine.  By now the blue of twilight is glowing.  He used leverage, but by now applied concerted discipline to contain his risks.    I wonder if I can use &quot;now&quot; instead of &quot;by now&quot; to convey the same meaning. I would think &quot;by now&quot; refers to a moment until now, but why not use past tense or present perfect tense in the these examples?
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If I seem tired, can I say: "I haven't slept last night"? If not, why have I been told that we use present perfect for actions that have present effects?
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Is it correct to say:     1) I've lived in London for five years.   Or      2) I've been living in London for five years.   I think second one is correct because we use present perfect continuous for actions started in past and is continuing in present.
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I read a sentence in an exam:     There is no child who did not bring his parents to the picnic.    I think that the sentence does not have tense-agreement. Why is is used instead of was? Please explain it to me.
53855
My friend asked me just today, "Hey, how are you?"        I said, "Tired, sleepy, and can't concentrate on my work."      He then asked, "Why so?"   Here is where the interesting part starts.       I said, "I have had a headache yesterday"   He said that I should have said "I had a headache yesterday" instead of "I have had a headache yesterday"  But all grammar books say that with Present Perfect + Past Tense we mean an action that continues into the present; has consequences in the present.  I didn't want to just tell the fact that I had a headache but I implied that that was the reason I was "Tired, sleepy, and can't concentrate on my work."  Who is right?
52307
Ok, so as an English teacher, I know that in the present and past perfect tenses, the auxiliary verb have is followed by the past participle form of the verb. Using most verbs, I find that this is true for all sentences I have heard. However, on several instances, I have run into a native speaker using the past form of the verb (drank) where the grammar calls for the past participle (drunk). For example: &quot;I hadn't drank any coffee before I lived in Italy.&quot; According to grammar norms, this sentence should be: &quot;I hadn't drunk any coffee...&quot; More and more, I noticed that people tend to use drank instead of drunk after perfect aspect constructions. This construction was used across all communities of practice and wasn't subject to dialect boundaries. According to results from , have drank and have drunk are clear, with the standard have drunk being 4x more prevalent than have drank. However, with an instance rate of about 200,000 for the non-standard form, that is nothing to scoff at. However, the opposite was true with the negative form haven't drank vs. haven't drunk with the non-standard being almost twice as prevalent. EDIT: As for the dialect variant idea, I have researched into the various dialectal changes involving the past participle. Most constructions involving the variant are indicated to be dialectal or just plain bad grammar. However, when I started hearing it from people from the UK, this is when I started asking questions. Looking into it further, I have found some linguistic research papers involving corpora and frequency analyses of this phenomena and have found that there is definitely a shift among non-standard verbs to use the past instead of the participle for perfect aspect. At least according to the BNC and COCA. This is usually with germanic-root words such as bid/bade/bid, drink/drank/drunk, bit/bit/bitten.     So, my question, then, is whether or not there is some sort of construction that is the exception for this particular situation, i.e. some construction where perfect tense does not use past participle after the aux. verb, or if this is simply some crazy, non-standard phenomenon with the verb drink in the perfect tense.
120502
A colleague asked me which of these sentences is correct, or if they are both correct which is better to use.   Are you using the current template version? Do you use the current template version?   I recommended using the first sentence but only because it sounds better to me.  Is there anything grammatically wrong with the second sentence or does it convey a different meaning to the first sentence?
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I know we can use both Present Simple and Present Continuous to describe future actions. But I don't know when to use the correct form.   For example:  We fly to Paris next week.  We are flying to Paris next week.   These sentences both seem correct to me.  Can anyone explain me how to correctly use these tenses?