Perfect tense: was/have

[Cbowsie]

I'm confused with perfect tense . Something is perfect when it is perfected or completed. But apperantly 'It was delayed for a few months' is not perfect tense even those it describes an incident that has finished. However, 'I have been delayed' is perfect tense just because 'have/had' is included, even though the two sentences are both referring to completed incidents.

[Alan]

Describing a perfect tense just as an event that is finished is something of an oversimplification! If verbs in your native language do not have a perfect aspect (as, of course, they may well not), then it will probably be difficult for you to distinguish something that English considers to be present perfect from something that is simply past (as in 'was delayed').

One key difference is that you cannot qualify (even implicitly) a present perfect tense with a past time adverbial such as yesterday, last week, five minutes ago, when I was young, etc. An event expressed in the present perfect is typically considered to be essentially a part of the present rather than of the past, but a completed as opposed to a still ongoing/extant part of it (and in the case of the present perfect progressive - have been doing, etc. - it may indeed even still be ongoing in the present moment, although you are focusing here mainly on the length of its duration so far rather than the simple fact of its occurring). It tends to relate to things like accumulated experiences, which, although gained in the past, still either exist or exert some kind of influence over the present.

Good luck with this difficult topic.

I suggest that you visit the ESL Learning Centre for further information.