[Grammar] after you have taken/take your lunch

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Oceanlike

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I know that the answer to the following grammar question is 'have taken', but I do not understand why the simple present tense, ‘take’ cannot be the answer.

- Finish your work after you have taken/take your lunch.

Can 'take' be taken as a correct answer also? Please help me to understand the reason behind it.

Thank you for teaching me :-D
 
J

J&K Tutoring

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Perhaps you have missed a detail in your question:
Probably you know it would be incorrect to say, "...after you have take your lunch..."

I'll assume you want to compare 'Finish your work after you have taken your lunch' with 'Finish your work after you take your lunch'.
In America, these would be understanding as having the same meaning. What would also be understood is the missing word 'break' from each.

'Finish your work after you have taken your lunch (break).' OR 'Finish your work after you take your lunch (break).'

Where I come from, we don't take lunch, we eat lunch:

'Finish your work after you have eaten your lunch.' OR 'Finish your work after you eat your lunch.' OR, more typically, 'Finish your work after lunch.'
 

bhaisahab

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Where I come from we have lunch. " Finish your work after you have had (your) lunch" would be natural in BrE.
 

TheParser

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Hello, Oceanlike:

Great question!

I did some googling and found a wonderful explanation at -- usingenglish.com!

It will tell you almost everything that you want to know about this topic. I learned so much from it.

(Just go to Google and type in these words: Using the present perfect with time clauses December 5, 2011.)

(Let us know what you think about it after you read/have read it!)
 

Skrej

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Where I come from, we can 'eat', 'take', or 'have' lunch. We might also 'grab', 'get', or 'go to' lunch in this context.

So all of the following are possible and natural, using either the simple present, or present perfect, with no difference in meaning between the tenses, at least in AmE, as JK previously mentioned:

Finish your work after you _____ your lunch.
a) take/have taken
b) eat/have eaten
c) grab/have grabbed
d) get/have gotten
e) go to/have gone to
f) have/have had
 

Oceanlike

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(Let us know what you think about it after you read/have read it!)

After reading it, I'm iron-clad sure that I'm a small small girl in a big big world of the English Language :roll:
 
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