Perfect agony

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Stephen Jones
Posts: 1421
Joined: Sun May 18, 2003 5:25 pm

Post by Stephen Jones » Tue Sep 26, 2006 7:43 am

The point of the present perfect is that it is a present tense; that means it takes place in a time scheme that includes the non-past.

'yesterday' violates that rule. Now it is possible that the speaker decided to switch time scheme mid-sentence; not advisable but not unknown and presumably if it happened often enough there would be a realignment regarding the rules for the present perfect, but at present it is rare.

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