Diary - Recently, I've read an article about food additive E466

Maybo

Key Member
Joined
Feb 23, 2017
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Chinese
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Hong Kong
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Hong Kong
This is an entry from my diary. Please check it and correct any mistakes.

Recently, I've read an article about food additive E466, and it says E466 could cause enteritis. After knowing it, I checked the milk I often drink and found out that it contained that substance! No wonder every time I drink that milk, I have diarrhea and later on constipate. The substance must have disturbed my balance of bacteria in my intestines. I've decided not to consume anything contains this additive.
 
Recently, I've I read an article about the food additive E466, and it says E466 saying/claiming it could cause enteritis. After knowing it finding that out, I checked the milk I often drink and found out that it contained contains that substance additive! No wonder every time I drink that milk, I have get diarrhea, and later on I get constipated/constipation. The substance It must have disturbed disturb my the balance of bacteria in my intestines gut. I've decided not to consume anything containing/that contains this additive.
Note my corrections above. I've noticed that you often open with "Recently", then the present perfect and I would have corrected that each time. In general, "Recently" is followed by the simple past or the present perfect continuous.
Recently, I read an interesting article.
Recently, I have been reading a lot of interesting articles.

Bacteria is present throughout your gut, not just in the intestines, and it's important to keep all those bacteria in balance.

The following isn't language-related but certainly relevant to the thread:
What kind of milk do you drink?! Milk should have one ingredient - milk! I can only assume you drink some kind of long-life milk (one that doesn't have to be kept in the fridge until it's been opened). Is that right? Fresh milk, whether from a cow, sheep or goat, comes out of the animal and is pasteurised and bottled immediately. Nothing is added.
It's a well-known fact in the world of nutrition that many people in China (and some other countries in the same part of the world) are lactose intolerant. This seems to be down to the fact that dairy was not a common thing for Chinese people to eat/drink until the 1980s. You can read more about it HERE (if you can access BBC websites from Hong Kong).
 
Yes, the milk is packaged in some kind of juice box, and it can last for a year. I don’t have problem when I drink fresh milk.
 
Yes, the milk is packaged in some kind of juice box, and it can last for a year. I don’t have THAT problem when I drink fresh milk.
Problem solved! Drink only fresh milk.
🙂
 
In that post, it's ok to say "My father has recently recovered from Covid-19." Is it because the recovery was a long process, whereas the reading of an article was a short action so we should use the simple past tense for that?
 
In that post, it's OK to say "My father has recently recovered from Covid-19." Is it because the recovery was a long process, whereas the reading of an article was a short action so we should use the simple past tense for that?
I wouldn't argue with it either way.
 
Why IN this case IS the present perfect OK?
Sometimes it's possible to use either one. Having said that, it can be hard to explain. As a native speaker, I know those kinds of things implicitly more than explicitly. @emsr2d2 or @jutfrank would be able to explain it better than I can. Native speakers generally have a "feel" for the right word to use in a given situation. In fact, isn't it the same with your language?
 
In that post, it's ok to say "My father has recently recovered from Covid-19." Is it because the recovery was a long process, whereas the reading of an article was a short action so we should use the simple past tense for that?
Your reasoning is pretty close to this, from wordreference.com.

Sometimes recently points to a point in time - simple past: Recently I went to London. (A single visit a few weeks ago.)
Sometimes recently points to a period of time leading up to the present - present perfect: Recently I have been to London a lot. (Over the last few weeks.)
 
Your reasoning is pretty close to this, from wordreference.com.

Sometimes recently points to a point in time - simple past: Recently I went to London. (A single visit a few weeks ago.)
Sometimes recently points to a period of time leading up to the present - present perfect: Recently I have been to London a lot. (Over the last few weeks.)
That looks pretty good to me.

Sometimes I find out that ESL learners learn "rules" that native speakers have never heard of and don't follow. 😊

By the way, I'm on WR (as Carolinian), but I only visit a couple of times a week.
 
Sometimes I find out that ESL learners learn "rules" that native speakers have never heard of and don't follow. 😊
It’s because you are native speaker. :ROFLMAO: You don’t need to know the rule. You can say it naturally.
 
I remember, many years ago, I asked my teacher the difference between the following:

1. After three years, all monkeys died.
2. After three years, all monkeys have died.

My teacher said that #1 sounds that all monkeys died at the same time after three years, #2 sounds that over the course of three years, monkeys died gradually.
 
It’s because you are native speaker. :ROFLMAO: You don’t need to know the rule. You can say it naturally.
I meant that they learn rules that don't exist.

Ted explained that one rather well.

Breakfast time!
 
I remember, many years ago, I asked my teacher the difference between the following:

1. After three years, all monkeys died.
2. After three years, all monkeys have died.

My teacher said that #1 sounds that all monkeys died at the same time after three years, #2 sounds that over the course of three years, monkeys died gradually.
No. The first one doesn't mean they all died at the same time. The second one is really hard to understand.
 
@Maybo I meant this. (See below.)

Sometimes recently points to a point in time - simple past: Recently I went to London. (A single visit a few weeks ago.)
Sometimes recently points to a period of time leading up to the present - present perfect: Recently I have been to London a lot. (Over the last few weeks.)
 
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I've recently read an article about food additive E466, and it says it can cause enteritis

The present perfect is okay here because you want to say there's a present relevance to reading the article. The use of the present tense says helps also to show that you're thinking about the present more than the past.

I recently read an article about food additive E466, and it said it can cause enteritis

The past tense for both verbs in this version tells us that you're thinking about the past more than the present.

(Notice also that I've corrected your modal 'could' to 'can' for both cases, not just the second one.)

I've decided not to consume anything that contains this additive.

The present perfect here is really nice. Well done. It tells us that you're thinking about your present situation more than the moment of decision.

My father has recently recovered from Covid.

This is also a very good use of the present perfect. Again, it shows you're thinking more about the present than the past. The important thing is that your dad's okay now.
 
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Sometimes recently points to a point in time - simple past: Recently I went to London. (A single visit a few weeks ago.)
Sometimes recently points to a period of time leading up to the present - present perfect: Recently I have been to London a lot. (Over the last few weeks.)

I'd generalise slightly and say instead that 'recently' can be used with simple and perfect aspect. The grounding of the time reference—the 'anchor point'—need not be the present moment. So you could use it in a future perfect or past perfect sentence too.

But yes, the salient point is that the word 'recently' is not limited to use in past simple sentences. Far from it.
 
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