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Present 1 John: I've read the book. Peter: What's it lilke? Is it worth reading? 2 John: What on earth have you been doing ? Your clothes are covered in paint. Peter: I've been decorating the room upstairs. Come and see it. It looks marvellous. Past 3 John: When I got there, everyone had gone home. Peter: So you didn't meet them? John: No, of course not. 4 When I looked at the state my room was in, I could see it hadn't been cleaned. Future 5 We shall have finished the repairs to your car by tomorrow morning. It will be ready for you ar 11 o'clock.] The percect forms imply two ideas: (a) that an action or event occurred before the time indicated by the context or situation: it has happened before now, it had happened before a certain me in the past, or it will have happened before certain time in the future, and (b) that this action or event has produced, had produced, or will have produced a result or a state of affeirs that is relevant to the present situation, was relevant to the past situation, or will be relevant to the future situation. An important characteristic of perfect forms is, therefore, that they explicitly link an earlier action or event with the current situation. In examples 1and 2, we understand that reading, doing, and decorating all occurred before now, and that each of these past actions or events has a direct relevance ot the present situation: Peter asks what the book is like, Peter's clothes are covered in paint (the room, fortunately, looks marvellous!) In 3, everyone's going home occurred before John got there, with the result that he didn't meet anyone (past): while in 4, the non-occurrence of cleaning earlier in the past meant that the earlier state of affairs remained unchanged at the time of my looking at the room (past). In 5, the garage will finish the work at some me before 11 o'clock tomorrow, by which time the repairs to my car will be in a state of completion (future). In each case, the time of the action or event is irrelevant, or is at least disregarded. The important elements are the occurrence of the action itself and the current result or state of affairs produced by it. If we wish to direct attention specifically to the result or state produced by an earlier action without drawing attention to the activity that has produced this state, we can use the auxiliary verb 'be' together with an adjective (or passive participle): 6a The floor is clean. 6b The chair is broken. While there is little ultimate difference in meaning between these sentences and : 7a The floor has been cleaned. 7b The chair has been broken. our attention in 6 is directed to a present state or condition, the past action being only implied: while in 7, the forcus of interest is on the past action, the present result then being implied. Difficulties for foreign learners arise either from the fact that their own language hasn't led them to look at events in this way, or from the fact that their language contains a verb form that looks similar to the English form but operates differntly. English speakers frequently switch their specific focus of interest from one aspect of events to another: John: I'm getting married soon. Peter: So I've heard. John: Oh! When did you hear about it? Peter: Your father told me yesterday. Peter's first reply is tatamount to his saying 'I know'. John's interst then focuses specifically on the time of the past event - when Peter heard. But we could not, even in the interests of economy, condense, both Peter's replies into: I've heard yesterday. In other words, we cannot combine a specific reference to the time of a past event with a verb that implies a specific reference to its current relevance. This does not, however, mean that the use of the past simple necessarily excludes the possibility of current relevance (though it often does): I know what your boss is like. I worked for him two years ago. The use of perfect tense appers to create special difficulties for foreign learners in sentences like the following: 8a He has never met you before. (during the whole of past time and up to the present) 8b That's the second time someone has interrupted me this evening. (during the whole of this evening and up to now) 9a I first spoke to him last Friday. I had never met him before. (during the whole of previous time and up to then - last Friday) 9b There was a knock at the door. It was the second time someone had interrupted me that evening. (during the whole of that evening and up to then - the time of the knock at the door) The present perfect in sentences 8a and 8b, automatically implies 'until now' while in 9a and 9b the past perfect indicates 'untill that time in the past'. The present perfect is also used to refer to similar events in the future; 10 I'm meeting an old friend next week. It'll be the first time we've met for ten years. |