1月15日号：Using Simple Past and Present Perfect

Many years ago, one of my students asked me this question: What’s the difference between:

◆Did you finish your homework?

◆Have you finished your homework?

On the surface, they seem to be asking about the same thing ? Is the homework finished or not? However, there is a very important difference. Simple Past only relates to the past. However, Present Perfect always connects the past to the present. To illustrate, let’s take a look at another example:

◆Did you eat lunch?

◆Have you eaten lunch?

Because “Did you eat lunch?” only refers to the past, we can assume that it is now too late to eat lunch (e.g. It’s 6:00 PM). Because “Have you eaten lunch?” connects to the present, we can assume that there is still time to eat lunch (e.g. It’s 12:30 PM).

Another way to look at this distinction is to compare the affirmative forms and negative forms:

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Ian先生プロフィール

英会話イーオン東京本社教務課コーディネーター。イーオン教師のトレーニングや英語セミナーを企画制作するカリスマ教師として活躍中。カリフォルニア大学バークレー校卒業。趣味は読書、料理、クラフトワーク。