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Suppose I'm telling my friend about what's happened to me lately, and, among other things, I say to him:

1. Yesterday, I bought a new laptop. I had saved up for months to afford it. My old laptop had started to malfunction, so it was time for an upgrade. I decided to buy the latest model from my favorite brand. When I arrived at the store, I realized that I had left my wallet at home. I felt so embarrassed!

As I see it, the past perfect "had saved" means that the saving up comes before the buying. The past perfect "had started" emphasizes the fact that the old laptop started to malfunction before I bought the new one. Therefore, using the past perfect tense for the bolded verbs appears logical. Now I wonder if this version is possible:

2. Yesterday, I bought a new laptop. I have saved up for months to afford it. My old laptop started to malfunction, so it was time for an upgrade. I decided to buy the latest model from my favorite brand. When I arrived at the store, I realized that I had left my wallet at home. I felt so embarrassed!

In my view, the present perfect "has saved" is justified because I bought the laptop just yesterday, thus making the purchase very recent and a part of my present. The justification for the simple past "started" is that it's clear from the context that the old laptop started to malfunction before I bought the new one, so there's no need to use the past perfect "had started" to make that clear to the listener.

Do you agree with my reasoning, and do you think that either version can be used in this case? Thank you.

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  • I would disregard the dv's by one person here. It is not the grammar, it is the logical sequence of events that counts here.
    – Lambie
    Commented May 26 at 18:13

2 Answers 2

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People might say it as in your second version, but it’s not standard grammar. The saving up that is relevant is that which created the conditions (of sufficiency of resources) that were already achieved at the time under discussion, and the time under discussion is yesterday, which is not in the present. You couldn’t, for instance, say, *”Yesterday I have enough money to buy a new laptop.”

Unless the saving continues. In other words, if the reason for saving weren’t just to be able to buy the laptop, but further purchases still lay ahead, and you were going to continue to save, then the present perfect would be appropriate. But that’s not the situation you describe.

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  • What about saved without had as it is obvious that the saving was before the buying of a new computer
    – Yves Lefol
    Commented May 26 at 17:31
  • Yes, @YvesLefol, the simple past, I saved up for months…, would be fine. Indeed, at least one frequent contributor here, FumbleFingers, encourages learners not to even bother trying to use the perfect forms until they’ve become pretty highly proficient in English.
    – Paul Tanenbaum
    Commented May 26 at 17:35
  • (@fumblefingers, are you listening?)
    – Paul Tanenbaum
    Commented May 26 at 17:37
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    I am! And I disagree with the pedantic "not considered correct grammar", as you probably expected! In the OP's specific example #2, I have no objection to Present Perfect being used by even the most careful speaker, to add "immediacy" to the fact that the saving up extends from way in the past, to only just yesterday. It's a context-specific way of being "emphatic" (to non-pedants! :)
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented May 26 at 18:06
  • @FumbleFingers Call it what you will. It is not logical at all. "I saw a cat yesterday. I haven't seen a cat recently". No way. It's not about grammar per se, it's about the logic of the past tenses. Grammar is one thing; logical time sequences another, signaled by past tenses.
    – Lambie
    Commented May 26 at 18:13
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1) is fine,

Yesterday, I bought a new laptop. I had saved up for months to afford it.

2) is not. You don't follow a simple past with a present perfect in those two related things. Use the simple past for both.

Changed: Yesterday, I bought a new laptop. I saved up for it.

But one can do this: I haven't seen them recently but yesterday I spoke to them on the phone.

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  • @PaulTanenbaum What are you objecting to? I have three, perfectly grammatical examples there and my answer is very clear.
    – Lambie
    Commented May 26 at 17:40
  • @PaulTanenbaum ok, I changed it.
    – Lambie
    Commented May 26 at 17:46
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    I don't agree that OP's #2 is incorrect. As the OP says, the purchase [was] very recent and a part of [his] "present". That works for me.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented May 26 at 18:02
  • 2. Yesterday, I bought a new laptop. I have saved up for months to afford it [at the time of speaking now]. My old laptop started to malfunction. is not great.
    – Lambie
    Commented May 26 at 18:11
  • It is not grammatically incorrect. It is contextually incorrect.
    – Lambie
    Commented May 27 at 15:57

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