Hi Oliver, I thought I should bring this up because it seems to be in a lot (or all?) of your (excellent) comic strips. You write "Haven't you just bought one?" (Present Perfect Simple) whereas as the correct tense would be "Didn't you just buy one?" (Simple Past). Your version is understood but (excuse my crude wording) it reads rather clumsily. Another example would be "He seems to be bored. He has sent me 10 tweets at once." -> "He seems to be bored. He (just) sent me 10 tweets at once."
In German we use the Present Perfect to underscore that the past has not yet finished. In this case we could say: "Hast Du nicht gerade eines gekauft" ("Haven't you just bought one"), as the process of buying the last phone is so recent, that it has not yet finished.
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Kolumnist des Jahres If you can read German than this blog is a must. It's nothing less than the foundation of the new "Neckarauer Schule". (Disclaimer: The blogger is my brother)
Hi Oliver, I thought I should bring this up because it seems to be in a lot (or all?) of your (excellent) comic strips. You write "Haven't you just bought one?" (Present Perfect Simple) whereas as the correct tense would be "Didn't you just buy one?" (Simple Past). Your version is understood but (excuse my crude wording) it reads rather clumsily. Another example would be "He seems to be bored. He has sent me 10 tweets at once." -> "He seems to be bored. He (just) sent me 10 tweets at once."
Love your strip, either way. :)
Posted by: Jerry | August 23, 2008 at 12:56 AM
Thanks Jerry.
I've just updated the comic.
In German we use the Present Perfect to underscore that the past has not yet finished. In this case we could say: "Hast Du nicht gerade eines gekauft" ("Haven't you just bought one"), as the process of buying the last phone is so recent, that it has not yet finished.
Bye,
Oliver
Posted by: Oliver | August 23, 2008 at 01:26 AM