Present Perfect

[olegv]

Please let me know what the correct answer is and why?


4. ...... my hand on a piece of glass. Do you have a Band-Aid?

I was cutting

I cut

I've cut

I cutted

Many thanks

 

[Rover_KE]

You have to try first.

 

[olegv]

Thank you. I have tried and chosen "I have cut". But the correct answer suggests the second one - I cut. While trying I used the rule saying the present result of the action. Please explain to me whether I am right. Thanks a lot

 

[bhaisahab]

Thank you. I have tried and chosen "I have cut". But the correct answer suggests the second one - I cut. While trying I used the rule saying the present result of the action. Please explain to me whether I am right. Thanks a lot

I would choose "I've cut" for the same reason as you, but both could be acceptable especially in AmE.

 

[olegv]

Thank you. Can you please explain to me a little bit further. In an abstract situation, like my friend has got a nice thing (e.g.scarf). What is the best option for answering him about the place where he/she bought such thing? For instance, Where did you but such a nice scarf or where have you bought such a nice scarf. The reason behind my question is that when there are no markers of present perfect like recently, lately etc or there is no direct or implicit present result, can we use both present perfect and simple past tense without change of meaning? Many thanks

 

[5jj]

It varies from situation to situation, and there are, unfortunately, no clear 'rules'.

In the situation of your friend's buying a scarf, I (a speaker of BrE) would think of the buying as a past action, and say, "Where did you buy it?". 'Where', implying a shop, locates the action in the shop, and therefore at a past time.

On the other hand, I might say instead, "Oh, you've bought a new scarf," being more interested in the fact that she now has a new scarf (as a result of a past purchse).

Had there been a previous discussion about her intention to buy a new scarf, I then might say, on seeing her next time, either "Oh, you bought a new scarf then", or "Oh, you've bought a new scarf". In the first of these I am thinking of the past action of going out and buying that we had discussed previously; in the second I am more interested in the fact that she now has the new scarf.

The bad news is that the usage will probably never become totally clear to you. Even if you do feel confident in the usage in one of the two main dialects, AmE and BrE, you'll find that speakers of the other dialect do things slightly differently. The good news is that it does not matter a great deal. In borderline cases such as the one I noted above, either tense is perfectly acceptable.

I should add that native speakers do not think consciously about which tense they will choose. The explanations you read in grammar and course books are attempts by grammarians to explain what they hear and see; they are not absolute rules for speaking the language perfectly - though they do, of course, aserve as useful guidelines for learners.

 

[Coolfootluke]

I am not a teacher.

[This is what 2006 was talking about.]

I think that either is good and correct, but I would say "I cut" every time. I don't even know why.

There is a device being advertised on American television called "Life Alert". You wear a little gadget with a button on it that you push in an emergency, and it sends the EMTs to your house. In the ads, an old lady is lying on the floor sans "Life Alert" saying, "I've fallen, and I can't get up." (Which phrase, incidentally, has found wide application in jocularity.) In this case, the present perfect is mandatory; she would never say, "I fell, and I can't get up." I don't know why that is, either. It seems like the same case as our cut hand.