| 15.3.3 Use of present perfect in German |
We already mentioned that there is actually no big difference
in the spoken language between the imperfect and the
perfect. Most likely the present perfect will be used
no matter what the regulation would say. Let's make
a little test to you associations to see what the
difference is.
a) Every day I wrote
her a letter.
b) Every day I have written a letter to her.
The first sentence says
that at some time in the past and it actually doesn't
really matter when it was, I wrote every day a letter.
The second sentence says that my letter writing has
some effect on today, very likely I still do the writing
and it is something close to me in time, place and/or
emotionally.
| to Germans these two sentences are just the same, both are correct |
| a)
Jeden Tag schrieb ich
ihr einen Brief, aber sie hat nie geantwortet.
b) Ich habe ihr jeden Tag einen Brief geschrieben, aber sie hat nie geantwortet. |
|
|
|
a) We saw him yesterday.
b) We have seen him
yesterday.
In English only the first phrase is correct. The little
word yesterday indicates that the present perfect couldn't
possibly be correct.
| to Germans these two sentences are just the same, both are correct |
| a)
Wir sahen ihn gestern.
c) Wir haben ihn gestern gesehen. |
|
|
|
We could give you another million of examples the
result would be the same. In spoken language there is
no difference between imperfect and present perfect.
The present perfect is the one used most often in the
situation of describing something in the past. It's
still to be considered that in written language there
are differences to be taken into account.
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