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Thread: why present perfect

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    Default why present perfect

    Dear teachers...

    Does this sentence read well?

    When I have bought my car, which I trully love, my colleagues checked it and finally nobody has bought it.

    I would very much prefer the simple past

    When I bought my car, which I trully love, my colleagues checked it and nobody showed interest in buying it.

    Thank you

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    Default Re: why present perfect

    Quote Originally Posted by Offroad View Post
    Dear teachers...

    Does this sentence read well?

    When I have bought my car, which I trully love, my colleagues checked it and finally nobody has bought it.

    I would very much prefer the simple past

    When I bought my car, which I trully love, my colleagues checked it and nobody showed interest in buying it.

    Thank you
    I'm not really sure what you mean. The two halves of the sentence don't seem to go together.

    Do you mean that when you bought your car, no-one else was interested in buying it? You were the only person who wanted to buy it?

    Did your colleagues check it before you bought it? After you bought it?

    Or perhaps you meant that you are selling your car and despite the fact that you love it and your colleagues have checked it over and found no problems, no-one wants to buy it.

    Can you clarify please?
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    5jj
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    Default Re: why present perfect

    Quote Originally Posted by Offroad View Post
    Does this sentence read well?

    When I have bought my car, which I trully love, my colleagues checked it and finally nobody has bought it. No

    I would very much prefer the simple past

    When I bought my car, which I trully love, my colleagues checked it and nobody showed (any) interest in buying it.
    The second version is grammatically correct. However, it seems strange that you should think that anybody might show interest in buying it just after you bought it and your colleagues checked it.

    Do you mean something like:

    Nobody had showed any interest in buying the car, but my colleagues checked it, and I bought it. I truly love it.


    ?
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    Default Re: why present perfect

    Quote Originally Posted by emsr2d2 View Post
    I'm not really sure what you mean. The two halves of the sentence don't seem to go together.

    Do you mean that when you bought your car, no-one else was interested in buying it? You were the only person who wanted to buy it?

    Did your colleagues check it before you bought it? After you bought it?

    Or perhaps you meant that you are selling your car and despite the fact that you love it and your colleagues have checked it over and found no problems, no-one wants to buy it.

    Can you clarify please?
    Quote Originally Posted by fivejedjon View Post
    The second version is grammatically correct. However, it seems strange that you should think that anybody might show interest in buying it just after you bought it and your colleagues checked it.

    Do you mean something like:

    Nobody had showed any interest in buying the car, but my colleagues checked it, and I bought it. I truly love it.


    ?
    I am not the author of that sentence. As I understood, someone bought a car and their friends had a look at it (probably after hearing from the author that the car was super, it turns out it wasn't), no-one liked the car but the buyer.

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