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We have just discovered today after the workers left ,that there is a water leak, some water is falling from the ceiling in the kitchen. As the workers had already left we could not speak to them and ask them what was happening. We have put two buckets found near the washing machine.

I used present perfect for discover because when I discovered the leak the day was not finished yet . Can I also use present perfect for put because both actions are quite simultaneus and still in the present or should I have used past simple for discovered and present perfect for have put I don't think so because of today.

Yves Lefol
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  • You could use Past Perfect for both verbs, but why not just use Simple Past? It means exactly the same, uses less words, and it's easier. – FumbleFingers Aug 14 '16 at 16:46
  • past perfect no present perfect – Yves Lefol Aug 14 '16 at 16:52
  • Well, it's too late for me to edit the comment. Anyway, it's still an "unnecessary" use of the perfect verb form. Here's another one: When is using the past perfect tense not necessary?. The bottom line is lots of learners seem to be keen to use perfect forms just because they might be "not wrong" even where most native speakers simply wouldn't bother. – FumbleFingers Aug 14 '16 at 16:55
  • @FumbleFingers That is an interesting phenomenon (" lots of learners seem to be keen to use perfect forms") and one that I never encountered until I stumbled upon ELL. It's clearly the fault of pedagogy at some stage in the learner's arc. Might this have something to with the only weakly inflected nature of English—when verbs in so many learners' first languages are strongly inflected? I notice now that StoneyB doesn't raise inflection anywhere in his article, and wonder if the article might benefit from its inclusion, particularly for learners from Latinate language backgrounds, or Arabic. – P. E. Dant Reinstate Monica Aug 14 '16 at 20:42

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