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So I am studying tenses and while going through Past-Perfect Tense I am stumped.

My research shows that Past-Perfect can be used to show three kinds of timelines (don't know if this is the right word to describe it but I hope you get the point).

1. An action started in the past and ended in the past.

I have read The Hobbit. (Present-Perfect)

How is it any different from,

I read The Hobbit. (Simple Past)

Don't they both tell us the same information that at sometime in the past I have read The Hobbit and I have finished reading it. Or are these going to be different answers (telling the same thing) to different questions ?

Have you read The Hobbit ?

Answer in Present-Perfect.

vs

What book did you read ?

Answer in simple past.

2. An action that started in the past and remains true in the present.

and

3. An action that started in the past, remains true in the present and may continue in the future.

The following example is most suitable for which of the above ? Are 2 and 3 basically the same ? i.e. If something is true in the present, it is likely to continue to be true in the future as well ?

"We have lived in the hut for three days."

(a) We have lived in the hut for three days sometime in the past and are not living anymore.

(b) We have lived in the hut for three days sometime in the past and are still living today.

(c) We have lived in the hut for three days sometime in the past, are still living today and will continue to live.

How can I differentiate between these three situations, given a Present-Perfect sentence ?

Thanks.

Ahmad R.
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  • "Have lived ..." is just one form - the present perfect. – BillJ Jan 06 '19 at 12:38
  • Hi @BillJ . I think my choice of words was poor. Like you said,"have lived" is the present perfect form, but what does it mean in term of time e.g. Its an event in the past, an event in the past that continues to be true in the present or an event in the past that continues to be true in the present and will likely be true in the future as well. If someone was to say 'We have lived in the hut for three days', what would you infer / what would be the correct inference ? Thanks – Ahmad R. Jan 06 '19 at 12:51
  • The present perfect is, as you say, inherently ambiguous in isolated sentences like these. But in Real Life you don't encounter isolated sentences: you encounter sentences in contexts which make the meaning unambiguous. This is treated in some depth at What is the perfect, and how should I use it?, especially §§ 3.1 Grammatical meaning and 3.2 Pragmatic meaning, and there are more links there if you want really technical treatments. – StoneyB on hiatus Jan 06 '19 at 12:52

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