Tenses are often used differently from one language to another, even among European languages (e.g. English, French, Portuguese). This is particularly true of present perfect vs. simple past. And speculation in the past is another confusing usage.
- In English, past actions with a specific time reference take simple past; they do not take present perfect (have + past participle).
- Present perfect is used for past actions that have a clear link to present time, highlight the action not the time (indeterminate time), and took place once or repeatedly. It is also used with ‘since + date’ and with ‘for + period of time’. (leading up to the present)
- Speculation or comments on a past event using modals or auxiliaries with have + past participle: may/could/might have done, would have done, should have done.
Examples from the Guardian article on “Could the English language die?”:
- Subjects of the Roman or Egyptian empires might once have assumed that their languages would last forever, like their hegemony, but they were wrong. (speculation on the past, then past fact)
- Latin and Egyptian were eventually transformed into languages that would have been unintelligible to Augustus or Ramses the Great. (past, then inevitable past result)
- The Egyptian language survived the arrival of the Greeks, the Romans and Christianity, but not that of Arabic and Islam in the seventh century AD. (past fact)
Test yourself!
Put the verb in brackets into the correct form (sometimes you may have two possibilities, depending on meaning):
- (Headline) A lesson from Brazil – where gig workers ____________ (rally) against the right
- (Subheading) Rodrigo Nunes, a senior lecturer in political theory, explains how resistance ____________ (spring) up among delivery drivers.
- On 1 April, Brazilian couriers ____________ (organise) a day of action in which thousands of workers ____________ (engage) in pickets and protests.
- Between 2016 and 2021, the number of people working for delivery apps in Brazil ____________ (rise) by 979.8%.
- Since the 1980s, thinkers in Brazil and abroad ____________ (speak) of the growing casualisation produced by neoliberalism as part of the ongoing “Brazilianisation of the world”.
- It is a long-term effect of how several decades of neoliberal domination over policy and discourse ____________ (impact) the ways in which people relate to themselves and one another.
- While several of the platform cooperatives that ____________ (spring) up in the wake of the 2020 mobilisations ____________ (not last), some attempts at creating worker-owned, worker-managed delivery services ____________ (thrive).
And from this Guardian article about noise pollution:
- Studies ____________ (show) that noise pollution plays a role in common health issues like heart disease and high blood pressure, along with surprising ones like low birth weight. One researcher ____________ (even go) so far as to describe our sound obsession as “aural litter”.
- These moments ____________ (should not be) such epiphanic discoveries, but they ____________ (be): I need – no, crave – more silence in my life.
Answer key
Check with the Guardian article:
- A lesson from Brazil – where gig workers have rallied/rallied against the right (both possible: indeterminate time or specific time)
- Rodrigo Nunes, a senior lecturer in political theory, explains how resistance has sprung/sprang up among delivery drivers. (both possible: focus on action not time and repeated action or once only and in the past)
- On 1 April, Brazilian couriers organised a day of action in which thousands of workers engaged in pickets and protests. (simple past with specific time reference)
- Between 2016 and 2021, the number of people working for delivery apps in Brazil rose by 979.8%. (simple past with specific time reference)
- Since the 1980s, thinkers in Brazil and abroad have spoken of the growing casualisation produced by neoliberalism as part of the ongoing “Brazilianisation of the world”. (present perfect with ‘since’)
- It is a long-term effect of how several decades of neoliberal domination over policy and discourse have impacted the ways in which people relate to themselves and one another. (focus on action not time and repeated action)
- While several of the platform cooperatives that sprang up in the wake of the 2020 mobilisations did not last, (simple past with specific time reference) some attempts at creating worker-owned, worker-managed delivery services have thrived. (focus on action not time and repeated action)
- Studies have shown (focus on action not time/indeterminate time) that noise pollution plays a role in common health issues like heart disease and high blood pressure, along with surprising ones like low birth weight. One researcher has even gone/even went so far as to describe our sound obsession as “aural litter”. (focus on action not time/indeterminate time or on one occasion)
- These moments shouldn’t have been such epiphanic discoveries, but they were: I need – no, crave – more silence in my life. (speculation in the past, then past event)
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Author: Carol Waites
Editing/Proofreading by Peter Kapec
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Carol Waites (PhD)
Email: carolswritingtips@gmail.com
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