Overusing the Present Perfect

In German, you pretty much always use the present perfect for normal past tense statements; the simple past appears in writing, but they don’t use it much.

Not so in English! In fact, we use the present perfect too much! (ahem, in my opinion)

First, the rule of thumb: If you can use the simple past, use it. Don’t use the present perfect unless there’s a clear connection with the present.

Look at the third cell in this Crumb comic. The bird says, “I have just punctured…”

Now change it to “I just punctured…” It has more, um, punch, doesn’t it?

Here’s a sentence from a work environment:

I emailed him, but he hasn’t replied yet.

“I emailed”—simple past. Happened once in the past and it’s over. (In Greek that would be the aorist, but I digress). “He has not replied” is in the present perfect, because he could have replied any time up until now, so there’s a clear connection with the present.

Here’s another one:

It rained all day yesterday; it has rained all day today, too

Yesterday is done with—use the simple past. Today is still going on—use present perfect.

Remember, if you can, you should use the simple past, nich war?