Present Perfect

[Peedeebee]

Hello, All. PLease don't take this as a question from someone who's cynical and fed up. It's a genuine enquiry to bring me up to date.
When I was at school in the UK in the 1970s, I learned German, French and Latin. That is how I and many of my generation learned our English grammar. Obviously we learned English too. But it was through the other languages that we learned about cases, tenses, subordinate clauses and other grammatical features.
I achieved excellent results in O Level English Language, English Lit., University test in English and General Studies A Level.
Since teaching in Primary education for my career and then marking papers for 11 year olds' Reading Comprehension national tests, I have become aware that Primary School children here now learn grammar terminology of which I had never heard; in particular the Present Perfect tense.
So my questions are, " What is it? When did it become grammatical terminology in comon use? How is it different from Perfect, Plu-perfect or Imperfect, which are the past tenses we learned in all 4 languages all those years ago? How did I manage to succeed in my education without being aware of this important tense?"
Comments readily appreciated, Thanks !

 

[Tarheel]

I've known about perfect tenses for a long time, but I had never heard of imperfect tenses before.

As for present perfect tense, it's a way we connect the past to the present. In other words, it's talking about the past and relating it to the present.

Feel free to use the glossary on this site.

 

[5jj]

The present perfect is what you used to know as the perfect.

In other languages, this tense, formed with the present tense of have (and sometime be) is used to refer to past-time activities. I English, the past-time activities have some relevance to the present time.

 

[Tdol]

I was taught the imperfect and pluperfect in French at school in the 1970s. I haven't heard them used since then, so maybe they were forced out in the 1980s.

 

[Peedeebee]

thanks very much, Tdol, 5jj & Tarheel. Yes, we learned imperfect, in French and German. I suppose we inferred its equivalent in English from there. Plu perfect was " I had eaten my dinner." Imperfect was "I ate my dinner."
I gather that plu.... has a different definition now.
In Primary schools in England they now have a test called Spelling, Grammar & Punctuation. It's inevitably known as SPAG by children and teachers. As I taught younger than Year 6 I didn't need to engage with its intricacies, at least up to 2011 when I retired.

As a digression, you may find this entertaining: Surprisingly, from my brief CV earlier, I studied Engineering at University. I always felt a little smug that I could write good English in reports and such like. My tutor took me aback one day. In a lab report I wrote something to do with momentum or something and used the phrase, "the wheel's speed.." He pulled me up for it, preferring, "the speed of the wheel" The footnote he put said, "don't use Saxon genetives" !!
I knew what a genetive was (see above CV!) but, well! What on Earth was that about?! (He was ex- Royal Navy.)

 

[Tarheel]

I don't remember studying grammar that much, but it was decades ago that I took German (in high school).

 

[raymondaliasapollyon]

thanks very much, Tdol, 5jj & Tarheel. Yes, we learned imperfect, in French and German. I suppose we inferred its equivalent in English from there. Plu perfect was " I had eaten my dinner." Imperfect was "I ate my dinner."
I gather that plu.... has a different definition now.
In Primary schools in England they now have a test called Spelling, Grammar & Punctuation. It's inevitably known as SPAG by children and teachers. As I taught younger than Year 6 I didn't need to engage with its intricacies, at least up to 2011 when I retired.

As a digression, you may find this entertaining: Surprisingly, from my brief CV earlier, I studied Engineering at University. I always felt a little smug that I could write good English in reports and such like. My tutor took me aback one day. In a lab report I wrote something to do with momentum or something and used the phrase, "the wheel's speed.." He pulled me up for it, preferring, "the speed of the wheel" The footnote he put said, "don't use Saxon genetives" !!
I knew what a genetive was (see above CV!) but, well! What on Earth was that about?! (He was ex- Royal Navy.)

He was probably implying that the genitive 's should be reserved for animate entities.

 

[jutfrank]

He was probably implying that the genitive 's should be reserved for animate entities.

I doubt it. He was probably suggesting that Saxon genitives are inappropriate for the kind of register required for this kind of writing.

 

[raymondaliasapollyon]

I doubt it. He was probably suggesting that Saxon genitives are inappropriate for the kind of register required for this kind of writing.

The bone of contention lies in the animate vs. inanimate distinction:

Inanimate Nouns and Possession | MLA Style Center

Opinions vary on which inanimate nouns can be made possessive by adding ’s

style.mla.org

Almost every learner of English has been taught about it.

Possessive - using 's with inanimate nouns

I'm surprised to find a university's web-site that wants me to stop using the English genitive with inanimates. Such as, for example, "university". When referring to an attribute of an inanimate object, it is inappropriate to use the possessive endings. An inanimate object such as a chair or...

forum.wordreference.com

 

[5jj]

He was probably implying that the genitive 's should be reserved for animate entities.

That's what I was taught 65 years ago. It's a 'rule' largely forgotten by many - and rigidly insisted on by some. The thread and article you gave links to give some idea of the range of opinions on this.

 

[Orlando Davis]

The bone of contention lies in the animate vs. inanimate distinction:

Inanimate Nouns and Possession | MLA Style Center

Opinions vary on which inanimate nouns can be made possessive by adding ’s

style.mla.org

Almost every learner of English has been taught about it.

Possessive - using 's with inanimate nouns

I'm surprised to find a university's web-site that wants me to stop using the English genitive with inanimates. Such as, for example, "university". When referring to an attribute of an inanimate object, it is inappropriate to use the possessive endings. An inanimate object such as a chair or...

forum.wordreference.com

Nevertheless, I advise you to always monitor the quality of your texts and use a plagiarism detector https://fixgerald.com/ that will help you avoid plagiarism in your work, and thus make them of the highest quality.

Thank you so much for sharing. It's very helpful for me.

 

[Peedeebee]

I probably should have spent more energy trying to understand his lectures on Rotational Velocity! (the tutor's).

 

[emsr2d2]

Thank you so much for sharing. It's very helpful for me.

@Orlando Davis - that's good to know. Would you like to explain exactly what was helpful to you?

 

[jutfrank]

I probably should have spent more energy trying to understand his lectures on Rotational Velocity!

I too always used to find rotational velocity very tough until I woke up one morning and realised it was easy. You could say it was a quick turnaround.

(Yes, that's a rotational velocity joke!)