0

My friend went to a concert of Bob Dylan 3 weeks ago. Today I met him and spoke with him about the concert. I know I can say, "hope you enjoyed the show," because the show is over, but would it be possible to use present perfect in this case instead? (Suppose I had not seen my friend since he went to the concert.)

Could I use the sentence below?

I hope you have enjoyed the show.

Tashus
  • 7,276
  • 14
  • 22
Yves Lefol
  • 7,469
  • 12
  • 49
  • 88
  • the problem is what do you mean by relevant imagine the concert has been so great that my friend has still a feeling of greatness in his mind at time of speaking can he use present pefect – Yves Lefol Dec 12 '18 at 15:20
  • It's extremely difficult to imagine contexts where a native speaker might reasonably use Present Perfect to refer to having enjoyed something they did several weeks ago, so the best advice for you as a learner is to just completely forget about it (here, and in many other contexts). If you really want to torture yourself, consider the perfectly acceptable I have* enjoyed going to Bob Dylan concerts - most recently just a few weeks ago - but I don't think I'll be going to any more in future.* Where I've highlighted *have* specifically because *it would often be heavily stressed*. – FumbleFingers Dec 12 '18 at 17:34

1 Answers1

2

The present perfect construction is not very appropriate in this situation. Present perfect can be used while the event at the conclusion of an event, because it emphasizes that the experience of the event is still ongoing even as the event itself ends, but it should not be used in most cases after the event is over. For example, Bob Dylan might say, "I hope you have enjoyed the show," right before he walks offstage, but it would be weird for him to say it two weeks later during an interview.

Yves Lefol
  • 7,469
  • 12
  • 49
  • 88
Tashus
  • 7,276
  • 14
  • 22
  • No - Bob Dylan would *not* say, "I hope you have enjoyed the show" midway through the show. He might say "I hope you are enjoying the show", or even feasibly "I hope you have been enjoying the show [so far]" midway through. But past perfect implies a "completed action", so as a native speaker Dylan would never use it as per your example. – FumbleFingers Dec 12 '18 at 14:50
  • @FumbleFingers You don't think he could say "I hope you have enjoyed the show thus far" and then, by ellipsis, "I hope you have enjoyed the show"? I agree that present progressive and past perfect continuous are more appropriate, but I wouldn't go so far as to say that a native speaker would never use present perfect. – Tashus Dec 12 '18 at 14:53
  • @FumbleFingers I know plenty of native speakers who would say "I hope you have enjoyed the show so far", though I agree "I hope you have enjoyed the show" without a "so far" would be inappropriate partway through. – Darael Dec 12 '18 at 14:54
  • *present perfect continuous – Tashus Dec 12 '18 at 15:00
  • Tashus - as Darael points out, it wouldn't be idiomatic to omit *so far* or similar with Present Perfect - you need to explicitly include it, otherwise the only natural interpretation is ...enjoyed the whole* show*, which makes no sense when the show hasn't yet finished. – FumbleFingers Dec 12 '18 at 15:14
  • @FumbleFingers You make a good point. I have edited accordingly. – Tashus Dec 12 '18 at 16:01