[Grammar] You have chosen all the furniture to match the style of the house!

[englishhobby]

I made an exercise for my students in which they were to use either the present perfect or the past simple. (I also used some vocabulary under study in the sentences.)
You have chosen all the furniture to match the style of the house! It looks so nice.

One of my students chose the past simple (You chose .....). Now I have some doubts. Can we really say that the student made a grammar mistake?

 

[GoesStation]

Either tense could work there, depending on how the speaker is thinking about the situation. Past simple: the action is entirely in the past. Present perfect: the action began in the past but may still be going on.

 

[jutfrank]

I wouldn't want to be pushed to say that the student made a grammar mistake, but if he/she was the only one in the class who chose that answer, you'd have to wonder why. It's pretty hard to imagine how someone would think the past simple is more appropriate, given what you've taught them about selecting between the two.

But if several of the students got the wrong answer, you'd have to suspect either that your example sentence is not good enough or that that you didn't teach them well enough.

 

[Tdol]

Without further context, I'd say both are OK.

 

[5jj]

Can we really say that the student made a grammar mistake?

No.