4

  1. Kristina has passed her exam!

  2. Kristina passed her exam!

Does English use the present perfect (1) or the past tense (2) to announce news?

Apart the way to express the vote—90%, 90, I don't know—which of the following sentences is more natural to give further details?

a. She has got 90%.

b. She got 90%.

Improve this question

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
4

1 and 2 are both correct, and at least from US usage probably occurs relatively equally. However, the impression is not quite the same.

  1. Kristina has passed her exam!

This implies that it was unexpected, or that she had some difficulty passing her exam.

  1. Kristina passed her exam!

This is just a simple statement of fact (other than the !).

a. She has got 90%.

You can't use "got" with a helper verb. Should be "has gotten".
But I think "has gotten" is a poor word to use in this context. Something like

Her score was 90%.

is probably better.

Improve this answer
3
  • 5
    I agree with you, but note that "has got" versus "has gotten" is a complicated subject, and many people do not use "gotten" under any circumstances. See www-personal.umich.edu/~jlawler/aue/gotten.html for details.
    – user230
    Mar 7, 2013 at 20:38
  • Agreed. My comment "But I think "got" is a poor word to use in this context." should have said "has gotten". I'll edit my reply.
    – user485
    Mar 7, 2013 at 22:21
  • 1
    The sentence "You can't use "got" with a helper verb. Should be "has gotten"." is not true in all regions. To me (a native of south-east England), "gotten" is not part of my vocabulary at all. I agree that using the verb "to get" in this context is not the best choice, but if I had to use it, "she has got" would be perfectly valid.
    – Steve Melnikoff
    Mar 8, 2013 at 10:44

You must log in to answer this question.