1

The bodies have been sent to hospital for post-mortem examination.

The bodies was sent to hospital for post-mortem examination.

What is the difference between them?

Reference: Stomp

Improve this question

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
3

The second is ungrammatical. It should be The bodies were sent to the hospital.

The difference between the first and the corrected second sentences is that the present perfect in the first suggests some present relevance of the sending; the second merely locates the sending in the past.

In the newspaper article you linked us to, the detective is speaking of a very recent action, and suggesting that the bodies are still at thei destination.

Improve this answer
1
  • 1
    If the bodies have been sent to the hospital, they may or may not have arrived yet. If the bodies were sent to the hospital they should be there by now. If they haven't yet arrived, then something may have gone wrong along the way.
    – Adam
    Nov 10, 2014 at 19:17

You must log in to answer this question.

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