0

I can not decide which one is correct or more accurate for using.

I have acquainted with structure of remote control in primary school.
I was acquainted with structure of remote control in primary school.

I prefer the second one but is it correct to use perfect tense here?

Improve this question
0

You cannot use the present perfect when the time phrase in the clause excludes the present.

In your case, on a semantic level, speaking from a point in time where you are no longer in primary school, but in high school or university, the phrase in primary school refers to your past, excluding the present.

But if a student in primary school wins a Nobel Prize for inventing a new kind of chalk that erases itself:

I have won the Nobel Prize, and I have won it in primary school.

In this particular speaker's context, in primary school does not exclude the present, and the sentence is grammatical.

Improve this answer
2
  • While I agree with your comments, I think "have" can't fundamentally be used in the first sentence, irrespective of temporal context, because "acquainted" is being used as an adjective here.
    – urnonav
    Jan 14 '19 at 20:15
  • @uronav: It wasn't perfectly clear to me what OP wanted to say; it seemed possible that it was something like "have become | became acquainted" in which case the tense of the verb would be relevant.
    – Tᴚoɯɐuo
    Jan 14 '19 at 21:50
1

You are using acquainted as an adjective here. You need a structure like this:

[subject] [verb: to be] acquainted with [object]

For example: I am acquainted with electronics.

This makes your first sentence incorrect because you are using "to have" instead of "to be". If you want to use "to have", you need to replace the adjective with a noun, as in:

I have acquaintance with electronics.

This sentence is syntactically correct but "have acquaintance" is not widely used.

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

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