2

(1) Joan walked out and has left her bag

It seems that (1) is not good because it violates a tense agreement rule. Is that right? Then, I am wondering what differences there exist between sentence (1) above and sentence (2) below.

(2) Tom moved to New York five years ago and has lived there since then.

Improve this question
9
  • 1
    It's not just a matter of saying your "Joan" example violates tense agreement. The reason the "Tom" example works is because Present Perfect has lived there specifically refers to the entire time between Tom moving to NY and the present time of speaking (something that started in the past has continued until now). But in the "Joan" example, she only left her bag behind once (at the same time as leaving) - there's no sense of continuing to leave the bag, right up until time of speaking.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Oct 9, 2021 at 16:01
  • 1
    ...for a more "borderline" case, consider John caught Covid and was / has been admitted to hospital. Where the Present Perfect version pragmatically entails that John must currently still be in hospital, but with the Simple Past version he might have recovered and been discharged (or he might even have died by the time of speaking; it's "agnostic" on that score).
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Oct 9, 2021 at 16:10
  • 1
    @FumbleFingers Present perfect can refer to finished single events in the past, so long as they have a present result, and that present result is the focus of the clause. "I've lost my keys" is a single event in the past, and it means, "I'm missing my keys right now."
    – gotube ♦
    Commented Oct 9, 2021 at 16:43
  • 1
    @gotube: That's all perfectly true, but I don't see how it relates to the fact that OP's "Joan" example isn't really idiomatically valid. OIC - you don't think there's anything wrong with it!
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Oct 9, 2021 at 17:35
  • 1
    @SunnyLee: I'm certainly not suggesting OP's text is syntactically invalid - just that it's "not really" idiomatic. Maybe in your relatively contrived context, the juxtaposition of Simple Past and Present Perfect conjoined by and would pass muster, but to be honest I still don't really like it. I'd most likely change the conjunction to but as well as maintaining the parallel verb forms: Joan walked out but she left her bag. OR use the Perfect ONCE, FIRST: Joan has walked out but she left her bag if it was important to stress "current relevance"
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Oct 10, 2021 at 12:41

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

The sentence about Joan is good. There's no rule against having different tenses, so long as they make sense. An easy example to demonstrate this is, "I've been to Tahiti twice and would love to see it again."

The present perfect tense has several different functions, and one difference between your two sentences is the function. Your sentence about Joan has the function of "a finished event in the past that has a present effect". Your sentence about Tom has the function of, "a continuous event that began in the past and continues to the present".

Another difference is that the Joan sentence also has a simple past tense. Normally, a simple past verb must have a finished time for when it happened. In "Joan walked out and has left her bag", "walked out" provides the context for "has left her bag", so it takes the implied time frame of "recently" from "has left her bag". It could be rephrased with both verbs in the present perfect:

Joan has walked out and left her bag.

(Here, though "left" is on its own and looks like simple past, it's actually the past participle, forming present perfect by sharing the "has" with "walked out".)

Improve this answer
4
  • Downvote with no comment :'(
    – gotube ♦
    Commented Oct 9, 2021 at 18:17
  • But the original sentence is Joan walked out, I would've said "Joan (has) walked out, leaving her bag behind" I would not associate "walked out" with "has left" something. it would be like saying "Joan swam [in the race] and has won first prize" Nope, does't work at all.
    – Mari-Lou A
    Commented Jul 17, 2023 at 10:09
  • @Mari-LouA Yes, in writing but in speaking it would be the way it is. But there are all sorts of ways to say these things and this one is actually grammatical. I think your swimming example does in fact work fine. Of course, one could use simple past in both or present perfect in both.
    – Lambie
    Commented Nov 14, 2023 at 19:48
  • I would not get too heavily into the grammar per se but rather into spoken English. And how people really speak. That said, I don't disagree with your answer. Joan walked out [five minutes ago or as a finished action] and has left her bag. [true at the time of speaking.]
    – Lambie
    Commented Nov 14, 2023 at 19:50

You must log in to answer this question.

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