Hucky
Member
- Joined
- Feb 15, 2011
- Member Type
- English Teacher
- Native Language
- German
- Home Country
- Switzerland
- Current Location
- Switzerland
Interesting question, and a tricky one to answer.
When I say "the people I have known" I'm referring to my life experience and its effect on the opinion that I have now. Exactly When I knew these people isn't important, but it did happen at some point up to and including now.
Compare: "I knew a lot of people in university" (the implication is that now I'm not in university, or I don't know a lot of people, or both.)
"I've known a lot of people who use 'do you have' but not 'have you'" (the point when I knew the people, or even if I still know them is not important.)
You couldn`t have paraphrased the meaning of the present perfect in a better way than you did in your first paragraph. Now I am sure that you did not have the past tense in mind. But wouldn´t the present perfect imply the present tense: people I know? In other words, when I say: "I have known my friend since we went to school." does that not mean: "I still know him." so that it would properly do without the latter? Or did you mean by using the present simple in addition to the present perfect to render some extra information or to put emphasis on some aspect that is not implied in the latter?