Past Simple or Present Perfect?

If I said :
I have seen them since yesterday
Is that sentence correct ?

Actually, using since ie I havent smoked since three days.
and using for ie I have stayed in Australia for a week
make Present Perfect so easy and clear to me:shock:

I have see them since yesterday- dodgy
I haven't seen them since yesterday :tick:

;-)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tdol

I could say 'I haven't had lunch today', unfished time and I expect to have luch. If I have left my office and am on the bus home I could say 'I did a lot of work today'. Here, the day has not ended, but the working part has and I don't expect to do any more work.;-)

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But you could also say,

"I've done a lot of work today."

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Tdol

1. I have seen them since yesterday- dodgy
2. I haven't seen them since yesterday :tick:

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It's only dodgy because of the meaning, not because of the grammar. The verb 'see' does not carry a durative meaning very well. Change it to 'watch' and it's fine, or 'been with them' or any other verb with a durative sense.

I think that there may be the situation when it is possible to say "have seen".
-I want to see a president/favourite actor/sportsman ect...
-I have seen him yesterday!

It's still very important.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by OhAh

I think that there may be the situation when it is possible to say "have seen".
-I want to see a president/favourite actor/sportsman ect...
-I have seen him yesterday!
It's still very important.

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I agree, it definitely happens, OhAh, but for ENLs, there is a strong tendency to separate the present perfect used like this, for adding importance, from any past time adjuncts [additions].

In speech you'd most likely hear something like this;

I have seen him ... yesterday!

Hi

The correct answer is past simple because the adverb "yesterday" states a finished action at a past time.

Regards,

In this situation, Teia, the past simple would definitely be, BY far, the most common usage. But this is not always the case. As noted in the CGEL;

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Past time adjuncts in experential perfects

This use of the present perfect allows for the inclusion, under restrictive [semantic] conditions, of a past time adjunct.

Chapter 3 The Verb - page 144

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Has anyone a copy of Michael Swan, Practical English Usage? There is a portion in the section on Present Perfect that discusses this very issue.

I've found OR I found that I've given/ I gave mine away.



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A CAVEAT: ESLs, please note that this is an extremely uncommon usage and as the CGEL stated, it occurs in extremely limited situations under extremely limited conditions.

well, present perfect and past tense are some how similar to each other but there are some differences between this tow :

1. simple past: action happen in the past and finished.

2.a) present perfect start in the past but there is no definite time (unknown time :yesterday ,last month,...)! so we can use : so far , just , recently,...

2.b)the only tense that acts as a bridge between past and present.

All the best,