No… Both “I saw him this morning” and “I have seen him this morning” can be used when it is 11am. The difference is: “I saw him this morning” - 我今早見過佢 Maybe the other person is asking “why is he not at the desk?” - this could happen at 11am, but the other person is saying 但係我今早見過佢喎 （maybe at 9am) - “見過” is the key “I have seen him this morning” - 我已經見過佢 The other person could be asking, “did you check with your manager about this issue?” So the answer is “I have (already) seen him this morning. “ the key is something already done. “已經” is the key. So in both cases, the key is not the time but is the intention / context.
When you say "I saw him this morning", it is implied that morning had passed. So it would be incorrect to say this at 11 am. If it is still in the morning, the more appropriate way to say is "I have seen him this morning", or "I saw him earlier", rather than "I saw him this morning". When you say "I have seen him this morning", it generally means that this morning had not passed. There is a distinction between these phases to differentiate the time relative to when the event took place.
@@mrslcom maybe due to difference in locale, for me in Toronto Canada, it is perfectly fine to say “I saw him this morning” at 11am. It is so often in our conversation we have something like (at 11am meeting) “why is John not here yet? Is he off today?” I could say, “don’t know, but he was in my meeting this morning at 9”.
@@SG2_channel Yes sure, in normal everyday conversation no one is going to fault you for making a minor technical error. Spoken language is never meant to be absolutely perfect. However, between the two phases there is a subtle difference as Fanny had pointed out. Saying “I saw him this morning” while you’re still in the morning will actually sound a bit odd, as “this morning” is redundant and there’s no need to refer to the current time period if you’re already in it. Hope this makes sense.
Hi Tiffany, my name is rose, I live in Dallas Texas. Your English course is very attractive to me , you teach grammar very clearly , if you speak slowly, it's better.Thank you !
我覺得除了 time 和 aspect 之外，用唔同的 tense 有“期許” 或者其他作用: e. g. 1) Did you see the movie? 只是好奇對方有沒有看，但 2）Have you seen the movie? 是覺得對方應該會看，而提問只是想知道對方已經看了沒有，暗示著看是遲早的問題。
Here are some tips for learners. The most common tenses that people use every day are: Present tense. It applies to things that happens or takes place as a routine or habit. Example: He takes the bus to work everyday. I usually take my dog for a walk after dinner. We can also use present tense to describe something: Her smile brightens up the room. Second most used tense is past tense which is applied / used in events that happened in the past. Example: I went to Disney World in Florida last year. I had a lot of fun. I ran into John at the Starbucks with his new girlfriend last weekend. I wanted to go shopping for a new pair of tennis shoes yesterday, but I felt asleep. All the actions took place in the past. Present Perfect is the third type of tense that we use when we talk about thing or events that happened in the past with known or unknown time and that event is still true or continuing, such as: I have known Paul for many year. (You met John in the past and you are still friends with him) I have known Paul since high school. Never thought I would meet him again as my neighbor.( The friendship started when you and John were in high school and you were surprised to see him again as your neighbor) I have studied English for 15 years ( past -----to present) I have saved enough money to start a small business. (no specified time in the past, but the saving was ongoing up to the present. Past perfect tense is occasionally used to describe 2 past events that happened with one preceding the other. Example: I had considered leaving London six month ago, but Jennifer changed my mind. Note, the 1st action verb is "had considered", not "leaving" which is a noun phrase, and the 2nd action verb is "changed". This is not to confuse the learners, but there is also future perfect tense which is rarely used except in contrasting context; such as: By the time Michael's flight lands in London, the police will have realized the crime trails Michael has left behind.
Tiffy 可否教吓 how to answer a negative statement correctly eg. 老師說： You haven’t done your homework. D 同學都答yes. Yes 到 亂晒 搞到 老師問 yes you have done then give me the work. 然後他們又答 no ….
I know what “I am going to Macau” means but there are other situations I am confused. Some very complicated long sentences are very confusing. Sometimes, it takes time to understand what “he/she/it/they” refers to. I am not sure if there are grammar books to show how to make such long complicated sentences. I don’t know if it is good to study grammar in general or just learn from natives. It is hard to know I speak incorrectly because nobody is going to tell me as long as they know what I mean. I am not sure how others improve their English after school.
“I have seen him this morning.” can be better explained by the reason why you are saying this. For example, “Is Peter absent today?” “I have seen him this morning.” meaning he should be present; can be used in either 11am or 4pm. Present Perfect Tense is used because it is related to the context, instead of purely looking at time.
For those who are learning on "ESL" level, just remember one thing regarding when to use present perfect. Infinite time from past to present, do not include any time marker in the context, like, ago, last year, or last week and so on. Wrong example: I have shared an apartment with John six months ago. Correct example: I have shared an apartment with John since January. ( or for a long time) PP never associates to past time. " I have seen this movie many times" Unknown past to present. " I have never been to London before" " I have been studying English since I was 12 years old". Notice this is in PP continuous tense because it emphasized the fact that I am still continuously learning as I speak, and this learning process started when I was 12. Technically, " I have seen him this morning" is against the principle of grammar because of the past time marker being used in a PP condition, and therefore should be avoided.
Don't u think you guys are making learning English a bit complicated? Just say 'did you see him?' ' Did u eat yet?' Btw, I don't think it's normal to say 'he was seen by me' :)
想請教一下點解美國佬會講"I had dinner already"而英國佬會講“I've had dinner already "? 英國嗰種我明，佢應該想表達“佢食左飯，so佢5餓。”but點解美式會用Simple past ，究竟美國佬既思維模式係點諗？佢地會5會只係想表達“我某一刻（5理剛剛/之前）已經食左飯”，佢地既文化聽者會5會已經 sense到我5想食野？所以照推斷美國既文化佢地係5係覺得好多野心照喇？
had had = 已经 （描述早前，现在 没什么 关系了） （I had had a bad impression of him before I met him, but soon after we talked to each other, we became friend.） （I had had enough of my noisy neighbour, so I decided to move out.） 强调：早就已经 have had = 已经 （现在 还有 关系） （I have had a busy weekend, I am exhausted.） （I have had enough to eat, I can't eat anymore.） （I have had many experience of teaching English.） 强调：已经 had = 曾经有 / 曾经做过... （I had a noisy neighbour who was so annoying.） （"You had an accident, don't you remember?" he reminded her.） （When my father was sick last year, I had to go back to Malaysia.） 用在：描述早前 I hope it helps. ^^
Here is my answer to your question. Unless you are writing a chronological narrative, in everyday usage, past perfect can be substituted with just past tense in many situations. Following traditional grammar, we use past perfect to describe two or more past events so that the order of the events is clear. For instance, I had lived in London for 5 years before I moved to Liverpool where I met my wife. Here, I have two events in this context, "lived in London" and "met my wife". In simple conversation since we have a conjunction " before", we are sure that there is no confusion which event happened first, we can simply use past tense instead. Also, I 'd like to point out, when people engage in conversation, the apostrophe d (for had) is often not detectable so you may hear just past tense. Just remember this rule. When you are describing two past events, past perfect by grammar rule should be used. In conversation especially when you have conjunctions like, before, after, and when etc, you can use past tense alternatively instead.
I had similar difficulty using present participle for many years until a few years ago. My understanding about the difference between past tense and past participle is this. Past is as you said something that happened in the past and it is usually associated with a time (like your example in the morning). Present participle, however, refers more to a state of one's activity - usually a binary one. We understand this more when you try to compare present participle and past participle.
I want to learn English with you, but I live aboard, not Hong Kong. How can I pay you the tuition fee for grammar course if I am not living in Hong Kong?
