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Old 20-Aug-2006, 15:53
riverkid riverkid is offline
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Default Re: A strange use of tense

Quote:
Originally Posted by shun View Post
I want to put the following statements at once:
-- He has found a new restaurant.
-- He has ordered noodles.
-- He has eaten the noodles.
And I find this:
Ex: "He has found a new restaurant. He has ordered noodle. He has eaten the noodle."

Is there any problem?

The only problem, Shun, is that we would not, in this case, use 'noodle' without an 's'.

Please don't criticize the short sentences. I just want to talk about the tense.
The present perfect is fine in this situation, but that doesn't mean it's the only choice. Often, to relate a progression of events like this [simplicity of the sentences aside], we use the present perfect.

The PP is used for a number of reasons but we need not go into all of them now. The ones that have a bearing on the present discussion is the one already mentioned and a second which will answer your question, "why have two tenses?"

One of the jobs of the PP is to make past actions seem more important, more current, more a hot topic. This is something that only the speaker can decide so we really can't state categorically that these examples must be either the PP or psat simple.


Last edited by riverkid; 20-Aug-2006 at 17:44.
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