0

I learned that it is incorrect to reference a time in past when using present perfect sentence such as this is wrong:

  • I have seen this car when I was a child.

So, I wondered how can the following be right?

  • I have just bought a car which I wanted to buy as a child.

Or, is it not right?

Improve this question
3
  • I think we don't use present perfect to reference a time in the past UNLESS an adverb of time, such as just, exactly specifies that past. See also "Today I have bought a car which I wanted to buy as a child."
    – P. E. Dant Reinstate Monica
    Jun 11, 2017 at 21:42
  • "That" would be better than "which" but otherwise, I don't see a problem with your sentence. The past reference is just a description of the car, it's not related to your action. You could leave out "have", which would make it less clunky without really changing the meaning, but it isn't incorrect.
    – fixer1234
    Jun 13, 2017 at 2:54
  • When you ask: 'how can the following be right?', are you asking why we can use 'just' with the present perfect?
    – green_ideas
    Jun 13, 2017 at 14:59

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
2

Your example doesn't make a connection between the present perfect and a past reference:

I have just bought a car which I wanted to buy as a child.

The sentence contains a main clause which can stand on its own: I have just bought a car, in which the present perfect is correctly used, and the relative clause: which I wanted to buy as a child, which is used only to identify the noun that precedes it.

Obviously, the absence of any temporal relation between the two sentences would have been more evident if you had written the example as two separate sentences:

I have just bought a car. This is the car I wanted to buy as a child.

Improve this answer
0

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .