Hucky
Member
- Joined
- Feb 15, 2011
- Member Type
- English Teacher
- Native Language
- German
- Home Country
- Switzerland
- Current Location
- Switzerland
Hiya,
Here is a borderline case for the pundits among the native speakers. Let´s suppose we have just visited the graduation ceremony of a university. Graduates from different faculties / departments unknown to each other meet on the campus enquiring about their respective subjects. Having finished studies successfully and graduated not so long ago, holding their certificates right in their hands, they could ask one another:
"What (subject) have you studied?" (present perfect)
Let´s suppose one more time that after some 30 years they meet again at a reunion of former students on the same campus. Of course, not realizing or remembering each other any more they want to enquire about their former subjects once more. They could ask:
"What did you study 30 years ago / when you were a student here?" (past simple)
Because of the time reference to the past the past simple is compulsory in this case, and for the same reason the present perfect is ruled out. But what about the same question without time reference? Well, everybody knows that their studies are long ago, thus implicitly referring to the past. Could they yet ask each other this way:
"What (subject) have you studied?" (present perfect),
without any time reference to the past, just willing to learn about the very fact? The reference to a present state of affairs as necessary for the use of the present perfect would be given as it is still true and remains true that they are graduates of a certain faculty / department.
Hucky
Here is a borderline case for the pundits among the native speakers. Let´s suppose we have just visited the graduation ceremony of a university. Graduates from different faculties / departments unknown to each other meet on the campus enquiring about their respective subjects. Having finished studies successfully and graduated not so long ago, holding their certificates right in their hands, they could ask one another:
"What (subject) have you studied?" (present perfect)
Let´s suppose one more time that after some 30 years they meet again at a reunion of former students on the same campus. Of course, not realizing or remembering each other any more they want to enquire about their former subjects once more. They could ask:
"What did you study 30 years ago / when you were a student here?" (past simple)
Because of the time reference to the past the past simple is compulsory in this case, and for the same reason the present perfect is ruled out. But what about the same question without time reference? Well, everybody knows that their studies are long ago, thus implicitly referring to the past. Could they yet ask each other this way:
"What (subject) have you studied?" (present perfect),
without any time reference to the past, just willing to learn about the very fact? The reference to a present state of affairs as necessary for the use of the present perfect would be given as it is still true and remains true that they are graduates of a certain faculty / department.
Hucky