2

"The last two nights in Las Vegas have been wonderful."

Is this sentence grammatically correct? I think it's better to use past simple as the last two nights are finished now.

Ben Kovitz
  • 27,566
  • 3
  • 53
  • 109
Abc
  • 511
  • 2
  • 8
  • 16
  • I agree, Past Simple is correct here, Perfect doesn't make sense. – SovereignSun Jul 01 '17 at 14:11
  • 6
    *If you are still in Las Vegas, you would use the PP. If not, SP. Both are grammatically correct but may not be geographically correct. Always keep in mind the rule: Is the state or condition [the fact of being in Las Vegas] referred to in the sentence still true at the time of speaking*? If yes, then you use the PP. If not, use the SP. – Lambie Jul 01 '17 at 14:14
  • Could you please explain why would I use PP. If I'm still in las vegas ? – Abc Jul 01 '17 at 17:02
  • Thanks for your comment but Actually, I'm confused between present perfect and past simple not past perfect – Abc Jul 01 '17 at 23:01
  • The only person mentioning or using the past perfect here is you @P. E. Dant. – green_ideas Jul 01 '17 at 23:46
  • The perfect should only be used when it is necessary to make your meaning clear. Simple past would be just fine even if, at the time of speaking, you were still in Vegas. If you were speaking from a time after your visit had ended, the simple past would also suffice. The perfect in your sentence can (not must) imply that there will be more nights following the "last two". You'll find good explanations of this in the post we call FumbleFingers' Perfect Truism. The principle is: "Don't use the Perfect unless you really have to". – P. E. Dant Reinstate Monica Jul 02 '17 at 00:49
  • By the way: your sentence with the perfect is grammatically correct, just as it would be with simple past. "The last two nights in Las Vegas were wonderful" makes "perfect" sense here, and it's exactly the way native speakers might express the thought. – P. E. Dant Reinstate Monica Jul 02 '17 at 00:51
  • @P.E.Dant FumbleFingers' truism is "Don't use the Past Perfect unless you really have to." Telling ESL learners not to use the Present Perfect unless they really have to would be bad advice: many do that anyway because they're afraid of it, and since you almost never have to use the Present Perfect, they just avoid it completely and never learn an important part of how people communicate in English. – Ben Kovitz Jul 02 '17 at 19:30
  • @BenKovitz See this link. "This is why I am so fond of an answer here on ELL which I have christened FumbleFingers‘ Perfect Truism. (FumbleFingers speaks specifically of the past perfect, but the principle may be generalized). ☛** 'Don’t use the perfect unless you need it.**'" (Emphasis mine.) I agree in part with your thinking here, but it ain't canonical for naught. – P. E. Dant Reinstate Monica Jul 03 '17 at 02:45
  • @BenKovitz But wait, there's more! It's not just new students of English who avoid the present perfect: it's nearly everyone I encounter outside of the academy, and not a few within it. Whether this is because, as you note, we never have to use it, or because it hasn't been taught well, I don't know, but I hear the simple past constantly in conversations which, had they been written by Conrad, would employ the present perfect. – P. E. Dant Reinstate Monica Jul 03 '17 at 03:07
  • @P.E.Dant I'm afraid I must disagree with the community, if the community has concluded that it's wise to advise ESLers to avoid the present perfect when it's not needed. I understand that it's commonplace for advanced, "fluent" ESL speakers to avoid the present perfect their whole lives, because of all the confusion surrounding it. They play it "safe" and avoid it, on the false theory that avoiding error is "safe". Consequently they remain deaf to this aspect of how we communicate in English. – Ben Kovitz Jul 03 '17 at 03:57
  • 1
    @BenKovitz Argh! No fair making me into "the community"! I don't think the community has concluded anything like that. I don't know enough about advanced ESL students to agree or disagree with what you say here. Certainly it's worth learning everything there is to learn about English. N.b.: I didn't choose Conrad at random above. – P. E. Dant Reinstate Monica Jul 03 '17 at 04:30

2 Answers2

2

If the speaker of the sentence is no longer in Las Vegas, then he would use the past simple. This is because the events the last two nights in Las Vegas are indeed completely in the past. They do not extend to and include the moment of speaking.

If the speaker is still in Las Vegas and uses the present perfect, which is the most natural scenario, it means he is including the moment of speaking in the time period of the last two nights. In other words, the last two nights are still in progress if the present perfect is used.

If the speaker considers the last two nights to be over and not part of the moment of speaking, he would use the past simple. This could be done to stress that the last two nights are completely over and done with. Example: it's the third day, and Jill wants to break up with Jack; she could say The last two nights in Las Vegas were wonderful, but I'm still breaking up with you (here on this third day in Las Vegas). This example is a little forced but it just shows that the expression the last two nights is usually going to take the present perfect if a location is given and the speaker is still at that location.

green_ideas
  • 1,476
  • 10
  • 15
2

You can think of "the last two nights" as two separate spans of time that began at about 8:00 p.m. on each night and ended when you went to sleep each night, or you can think of "the last two nights" as part of a series of nights that started two nights ago and continues up to the present.

The choice between simple past and present perfect leads your listener to think of the last two nights the first way or the second way, respectively. The present perfect usually leads the listener to understand the past events as part of a process of interest that is still continuing (or just started or just finished). That process is not necessarily mentioned in the sentence, as the examples below will illustrate.

Talking about a vacation: during and after

Suppose that Valerie thinks of Las Vegas as a den of sleaze and organized crime, and didn't want to spend her vacation there, but she reluctantly agreed to go on a four-day trip to Las Vegas with her friend Joanne. On the morning of the fourth day, they have this conversation:

Joanne: So, have you enjoyed the City so far?
Valerie: I must admit, the last two nights in Las Vegas have been wonderful. But there are still two more days to go.

Valerie uses the present perfect here to suggest that she wants Joanne to understand the last two nights as a time interval that continues to the present and as part of something continuing beyond the present: the vacation. Notice that nobody ever said "vacation". In the situation, the present perfect is enough to suggest it.

Now suppose that Joanne and Valerie are talking about the vacation 20 years later—long after the two nights and long after the end of the vacation:

Joanne: So, how did you enjoy our summer vacation in 1997?
Valerie: The first two nights in Las Vegas were wonderful. The last two nights, though, were a disaster. I lost every cent I had in a long run of bad luck at the blackjack tables.

Valerie uses the simple past because the story in which those nights are events is over. The vacation is over, and you're talking about the events in connection with the vacation, so the events that are part of the vacation go in the simple past tense.

Distinguishing location and time

By the way, people wouldn't ordinarily say "The last two nights in Las Vegas have been wonderful" except to distinguish them from nights at other locations. This conversation is a little more plausible:

Vito the Boss of Many Casinos: So, how's the take this week?
Joe the Manager of the Casinos in Tahoe and Las Vegas: Tahoe has been in a dry spell: we barely broke even all week. But the last two nights in Las Vegas have been wonderful: we made $400,000 both nights.

By using the present perfect, Joe suggests that he thinks the high revenue might continue. If he had used the simple past, then he would have reported the same facts without suggesting anything about whether the high revenue will continue.

Also, this conversation, on the fourth morning, is more plausible:

Joanne: So, have you enjoyed Las Vegas so far?
Valerie: Well, the first night was a disaster, but the last two nights have been wonderful.

The first night is over, and it doesn't extend to the present, so Valerie talks about it in the simple past. She distinguishes it from the present situation, which she frames as part of a span of time that began two days ago. Valerie doesn't mention Las Vegas because there's no distinction to make about the last two nights regarding location.

Ben Kovitz
  • 27,566
  • 3
  • 53
  • 109
  • If virtual Valerie were to say instead (as I suspect an actual Valerie might outside of our lab here) "Well, the first night was a disaster, but the last two nights were wonderful," how might she be misunderstood? I would rather not make this observation, because no-one enjoys the richness and precision of our language more than I, but I'm convinced that our Valerie would use the past. In the same vein, a genuine Joanne would ask instead: "So, didja enjoy Vegas so far?" – P. E. Dant Reinstate Monica Jul 03 '17 at 02:54
  • @P.E.Dant Sure, but I'm not making a prediction about whether Valerie would use the present perfect, I'm talking about the situation where Valerie does use the present perfect. If she did that, what would she be trying to communicate? Or rather, how? This throws ESLers for a loop: instead of being governed by a rule of "grammatical correctness", the present perfect is a way of helping the other person follow what you're saying, and it usually has to do with things not said in the sentence. The whole question of "Is it grammatically correct?" comes from a false assumption about how it works. – Ben Kovitz Jul 03 '17 at 03:59
  • 1
    You are dead right about the locution grammatically correct, which should be stricken from our tongue, or at least from our site. – P. E. Dant Reinstate Monica Jul 03 '17 at 04:15
  • Great answer thak you .. I just have another question about intervals .. if I broke my leg few days ago, and my friend asks me to play football with him. And I want to tell him that I broke my leg. So I should use past simple as its a finished interval or present perfect ? – Abc Jul 04 '17 at 12:16
  • @Mmm Past simple, because the relevant time interval—the story of the broken leg—ended before the present. "Sorry, I can't play. I broke my leg a few days ago." – Ben Kovitz Jul 04 '17 at 13:30
  • Even if I didn't say "few days ago" ? – Abc Jul 05 '17 at 10:42
  • 1
    @Mmm Yes. By using the simple past, you're suggesting that the breaking of the leg is not a current event. Compare and contrast these: "Sorry, I can't play. I broke my leg." "Sorry, I can't play. I've broken my leg. Can you drive me to the hospital?" – Ben Kovitz Jul 05 '17 at 12:38
  • and what should be the time interval for this example : "I've broken my leg. Can you drive me to the hospital?" – Abc Jul 15 '17 at 11:34
  • @Mmm The time from breaking the leg to finishing dealing with it. In other words, the time during which the broken leg is an urgent matter. Using the present perfect here is like saying "Dealing with my broken leg is still an urgent matter." – Ben Kovitz Jul 15 '17 at 15:15
  • So it's unfinished interval that starts at the present time? And it's the same when I say " I've lost my keys, I can't get into my house" or "I've missed the bus. So I'll be late" .. correct? – Abc Jul 15 '17 at 15:46
  • @Mmm You can have unfinished intervals that start at the present time (or a moment earlier). Usually those are indicated by "just", as in "I've just broken my leg" or "I have just put the cookies into the oven." "I've broken my leg. Can you drive me to the hospital" starts with the moment that the leg was broken. With the keys and the bus, the interval starts with the loss of the keys or the bus driving away—which could have happened just now. The main idea is that some process is still ongoing in the present (maybe started just now) and will probably continue. – Ben Kovitz Jul 16 '17 at 00:31
  • With the keys and the bus, If the action happened earlier like few hours ago or few minutes ago. I would also use present perfect? – Abc Jul 16 '17 at 08:30
  • 1
    @Mmm Yes, if you want to convey that the situation is still on-going—though that is unlikely. If another bus comes every 10 minutes, you wouldn't say "I've missed my bus" 15 minutes later, after the next bus has arrived: the (time interval of the) missing of the first bus is now fully in the past: it's over. If you missed the last bus of the night, though, and you're still looking for a ride, the present perfect can help suggest that this is still a problem. But an hour later is probably long enough to feel like the missing of the bus is an action now fully over, no longer "present". – Ben Kovitz Jul 16 '17 at 22:47
  • So, any time interval must include the present in any way, it may be ( just started or finished at the present, or the present is a part of it if it's unfinished interval ) – Abc Jul 17 '17 at 19:06
  • @Mmm Yes, exactly. It's called the present perfect because something about the event (or events, or activity, or whatever) pertains to the present. Here is another answer that has a few more examples where the time interval ends at the present or extends past the present. – Ben Kovitz Jul 17 '17 at 23:05