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RSSTelevision and the Present Perfect Tense
Autumn writes:
I’ve been wrestling with the title of a new Food Channel show called “The Best Thing I Ever Ate”. I can’t put my finger on it, but this sounds incorrect to me . . . what is it that’s throwing me off?
Autumn’s grammatical instincts are correct. There is something not quite right with the name of this cooking show. “The best thing I ever ate” is idiomatic, but it’s not a formal English construction.
The simple past, ate, is used to describe an action that took place at a specific time. For example: The best thing I ate while I was in Greece . . .
Actions that occur at some unspecified time before the present are described with the present perfect: The best thing that I have ever eaten . . .
The present perfect may be used with unspecific modifiers:
ever, never, once, many times, several times, before, so far, already, yet, etc.
It may not be used with modifiers that indicate specific times:
yesterday, last week, when I was young, etc.
The formal version of “The Best Thing I Ever Ate” would be “The Best Thing I’ve Ever Eaten.”
But would it sell?
Fuller descriptions of the uses of the simple past and present perfect can be found here:
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As far as TV and marketing go, I think proper grammer is readily dropped more and more these days in favour of snappy, memorable titles that appeal to the masses.
Thank you Maeve, this really helped to clairify things – those links were really helpful too.
I, too, have noticed a general confusion about the difference between the simple past tense and the present perfect.
I have seen many sentences along the lines of “I took this trip many times.”
Other sentences simply boggle me, such as “She has ate the pizza.”
i want to download ur grammer book