Monday, March 5, 2007

Developed vs Have developed

On the second test, under library subscriptions, the sentence read, "We have developed a large list of libraries..."

Is there a preference for writing "We have developed..." over "We developed..."?

6 comments:

Pat said...

Have developed is an example of what's called present perfect tense. A thorough discussion of this tense can be found on this page of www.englishpage.com.

Pat said...

Because developing the list is a task that is not finished, that is being refined, you use the present perfect tense instead of the simple past.

Anonymous said...

So I don't know if this is right or anything, but this is what I think.

I think using colloquial speech "have" makes more sense.

Example 1

Person 1: Have you danced to that club?

Person 2: Yeah, I've danced at that club.

Example 2
Person 1: Did you dance at that club?

Person 3: Yeah, I danced at that club.

For Example 1, note how the contraction (which sounds more familiar to our ears) is more immediate; in other words, it sounds as if it could have just happened.

Example 2 sounds much like more time has elapsed.

Notice also, that they are answers to different questions. The questions assume a particular time from the action.

Anonymous said...

Maybe should have written "I think by using colloquial speech "have" makes more sense.

Pat said...

Thank you, Jill; I like your examples and explanation.

R Delara said...

Thank you! :-)