'Have you eaten?' and 'Did you eat?'

Dustin Hosseini dustin.hosseini at GMAIL.COM
Wed Sep 10 05:22:09 UTC 2008


In other words, the present perfect in English, which is used to inquire
about the general fact of an action having been or not been performed, can
generally be rendered into Russian using its imperfect aspect.  

While at the same time, we can render the English language's past simple
into Russian by using the perfect aspect, since the past simple usually is
used to inquire about whether an action occured at all.  

Is that correct?  

Russian-speaking students of English as a foreign language tend to struggle
with the perfect tenses and quite a bit.  These learners/speakers tend to
use the present perfect more often than not in cases where the present
perfect isn't needed, depending on the depth of their knowledge of English.
 i.e. Have you called me today? vs. Did you call me today?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------
 Use your web browser to search the archives, control your subscription
  options, and more.  Visit and bookmark the SEELANGS Web Interface at:
                    http://seelangs.home.comcast.net/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------



More information about the SEELANG mailing list