Hello, guys, I am stumped by present perfect, could you give me a hand?

I have learned that people never use the present perfect to talk about SPECIFIC DATES, therefore, "I have visited the Eiffel Tower LAST YEAR" is totally wrong.

Then, why is following sentence correct? "How do you think THIS YEAR has gone? "

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L84work

11 kwi 2021

Najlepsza odpowiedź

angielski (brytyjski)

This is tricky.

The simple past is the most-used past tense, in English. It has a range of uses.

The present perfect; many people struggle with this. I wonder if a helpful approach is to think of this tense for when the events described have some relevance or importance in the present, or are continuing into the present?

"How do you think THIS YEAR has gone? " We are in the present. We are talking about the present time, and the events leading up to the present. We could just as easily have said "How do you think this year is going?" Using the present perfect, though, invites us to focus on events up to now, while the present continuous would invite us to think about the present and the future as well.

"I have visited the Eiffel Tower LAST YEAR" - this is wrong. Just use the simple past here. It has no relevance in the present. "I visited the Eiffel Tower last year."

If you added a comma, it would be possible: "I have visited the Eiffel Tower; LAST YEAR". Then the first part would be an emphatic response to a question, or perhaps a contradiction of an earlier statement.

"You have never been to the Eiffel Tower!"
"I have visited the Eiffel Tower!!" You could add the "last year after a comma or semi-colon, so that this is expanding on the first phrase.

Maybe this will help:
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/eng...
https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/english...

哦，我是另一个傻瓜！
(I don't know any Chinese, so this is from Reverso. Apologies for any accidental bad meaning!)

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davey101

11 kwi 2021

angielski (brytyjski)

This year is still continuing. Last year is in the past.

The rule about specific dates only applies if they are in the past and are therefore completed.

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L84work

11 kwi 2021

angielski (brytyjski)

This is tricky.

The simple past is the most-used past tense, in English. It has a range of uses.

The present perfect; many people struggle with this. I wonder if a helpful approach is to think of this tense for when the events described have some relevance or importance in the present, or are continuing into the present?

"How do you think THIS YEAR has gone? " We are in the present. We are talking about the present time, and the events leading up to the present. We could just as easily have said "How do you think this year is going?" Using the present perfect, though, invites us to focus on events up to now, while the present continuous would invite us to think about the present and the future as well.

"I have visited the Eiffel Tower LAST YEAR" - this is wrong. Just use the simple past here. It has no relevance in the present. "I visited the Eiffel Tower last year."

If you added a comma, it would be possible: "I have visited the Eiffel Tower; LAST YEAR". Then the first part would be an emphatic response to a question, or perhaps a contradiction of an earlier statement.

"You have never been to the Eiffel Tower!"
"I have visited the Eiffel Tower!!" You could add the "last year after a comma or semi-colon, so that this is expanding on the first phrase.

Maybe this will help:
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/eng...
https://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/english...

哦，我是另一个傻瓜！
(I don't know any Chinese, so this is from Reverso. Apologies for any accidental bad meaning!)

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ZhangZilv

13 kwi 2021

chiński uproszczony (Chiny)

@L84work Thank you so much! I have read your links, the 2nd one involves my questions, quite useful and interesting actually.

Tenses are really tricky, especially for Chinese people, probably because there're no tenses in Chinese and form of verbs are not changeable.

I was taught that the present perfect tense is used to emphasize that the past has had an impact on the present, so I thought that we could use present prefect in all cases, since I thought everything in the past affects the present, after all all the past makes the present (present is a collection of the past) ...... that's why I can't understand why sometimes requires past tense while sometimes requires the present perfect tense.

Last but not least, no need to apologize, it does not have any bad meaning, actually makes prefect sense, LOL 现在就差最后一个傻瓜了！ Chinese is not that difficult, at least we don't have tenses ; P

L84work

13 kwi 2021

angielski (brytyjski)

@ZhangZilv I feel your pain. English is not really at all logical, and most of its "rules" have so many exceptions that they are often not useful. But you write beautifully in English already. And if you are learning now how to navigate our past tenses, you are well on the way to mastery. The wise man understands that he doesn't understand ;) We have some Shakespeare on this - and I think you have some Lao Tzu / Laozi !!! ;) https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/william_shak...
来自英国的问候和尊重

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ZhangZilv

17 kwi 2021

chiński uproszczony (Chiny)

Appreciate your warm words : ) @L84work

I like this quote! As a fool, I don't think there's any reason I can refuse such a compliment : P

We do have a similar one from Laozi：大智若愚
You might also find the same spirit through Chinese 文人山水画 (Chinese landscapes painted by literati ). The painter always make the landscape high and big but the figures small (even can be considered as scribbled)---- because the painter revere nature and realize their own insignificance.

Best regards from China.