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The present perfect tense is used in the sentence below but here and here, they do not use the present perfect. Can we use present perfect simple tense in conditional sentences like the sentence below? If so, what is difference between has finished and finishes?

Unless a probationary employee has successfully finished the training, he cannot be considered a full employee and be assigned to one of the teams.

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  • You need to speak about either the following sentence or the sentence below but you can't use the below sentence or the belows sentence. These constructions are not grammatical.
    – Ronald Sole
    Jul 13, 2018 at 10:11

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In conditionals like this, there is no difference between using finishes and has finished. You can use either of them and there is no semantic difference whatsoever. Which one you choose is a matter of taste.

Personally, has finished sounds better to me though.

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  • Is it conditional on the verb that has finished is more to your taste than finishes?
    – Orient
    Jul 13, 2018 at 7:26
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    Not particularly, it's mostly context. Also, I can totally imagine another person preferring finishes in the same situation.
    – Omegastick
    Jul 13, 2018 at 7:43
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    Actually, there's a situation where finishes becomes better. If the thing definitely hasn't happened yet (and thus will happen in the future), then finishes is more appropriate. "Unless he finishes his exam, I can't grade it"
    – Omegastick
    Jul 13, 2018 at 7:47
  • Then in my question, an employee is training now and not yet done, right?
    – Orient
    Jul 13, 2018 at 8:19
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    @Orient If it's guaranteed that the the training hasn't been finished yet, then I would prefer finishes (and I would also pair it with until instead of unless). However, I assume there are employees in your company that have finished the training and are thus considered 'full employees'.
    – Omegastick
    Jul 13, 2018 at 8:30

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