Music3 mins ago
American use of English language
7 Answers
Is there a past perfect tense in the American language?
e.g. American: He dove into the water.
English: He dived into the water
American:He shined his torch
English:he shone his torch.
e.g. American: He dove into the water.
English: He dived into the water
American:He shined his torch
English:he shone his torch.
Answers
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Your sentences above are all examples of the simple past...as in I danced or I drove. The present perfect tense is the one where we use has/have as an auxiliary plus the verb concerned...as in He has been to London or I have seen this film. The past perfect is the one where we use had as an auxiliary plus the verb concerned...as in I had met him before the party last night or She had been most disagreeable.
What you seem to be referring to is the difference between British English (BE) and American English (AE) as to which verbs are regular and which are irregular. The simple past of regular verbs in BE all end in -ed...played, worked, asked...whereas the simple past of irregular verbs in BE vary as to their formation...wrote, stood, rang.
Americans, in this as in other aspects of language, do things their own way, and why not? If they want to treat dive as an irregular verb whilst we don't, good luck to 'em.
I can think of only one instance where they don't seem to use a past perfect where we often do and that is where the actual verb as well as the auxiliary is the verb, to have. Any time I write had had, my computer indicates it as a mistake, so I'm not too sure whether Americans have this particular construction or not.
I might say/write, "I avoided the party because I had had a bad cold for the previous three days." This indicates that the party was in the past, but that before that. I was unwell. In other words, it's a sort of past-past.
What you seem to be referring to is the difference between British English (BE) and American English (AE) as to which verbs are regular and which are irregular. The simple past of regular verbs in BE all end in -ed...played, worked, asked...whereas the simple past of irregular verbs in BE vary as to their formation...wrote, stood, rang.
Americans, in this as in other aspects of language, do things their own way, and why not? If they want to treat dive as an irregular verb whilst we don't, good luck to 'em.
I can think of only one instance where they don't seem to use a past perfect where we often do and that is where the actual verb as well as the auxiliary is the verb, to have. Any time I write had had, my computer indicates it as a mistake, so I'm not too sure whether Americans have this particular construction or not.
I might say/write, "I avoided the party because I had had a bad cold for the previous three days." This indicates that the party was in the past, but that before that. I was unwell. In other words, it's a sort of past-past.
Speaking as one American (though not necessarily a representative for all Americans), "had had" is perfectly acceptable (though we'd more like say "I'd had a bad cold"). I think computers are just programmed to check for any repeated word, regardless of whether it makes sense or not.
I would say "dove into the water," but I think I would say "shone his torch" (except I'd say flashlight not torch!).
I would say "dove into the water," but I think I would say "shone his torch" (except I'd say flashlight not torch!).
What throws me when I read American books is, for example, when it says: he put the shoes on and they fit him perfectly (when in England we would say fitted). There are several verbs like this where it sounds to us as though the present is being used instead of the past because they use a different version of the past.
We say sneaked and they say snuck and there are probably many other such differences in irregular verb-forms between us and the US of A.
Any minute now, we'll all be singing, "I say tomayto and you sat tomahto...let's call the whole thing off". That has nothing to do with verb-forms, of course, but it's just another illustration of the old saying: "We are divided by a common language."
Any minute now, we'll all be singing, "I say tomayto and you sat tomahto...let's call the whole thing off". That has nothing to do with verb-forms, of course, but it's just another illustration of the old saying: "We are divided by a common language."
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