4
votes
2answers
173 views

Why present perfect in “When the night has come”?

In the song “Stand by Me”, we see a sentence like “when the night has come.” I was taught that in a when clause, we use the past tense, yet the present perfect has been used in the sentence cited ...
6
votes
3answers
589 views

What tense is “If I were a bird, I could fly”

The sentence is not referring to any time past, present of future. It's just referring to an imaginary condition which has never existed and seemingly will never exist. Still, the sentence and other ...
1
vote
1answer
856 views

Confused by the past tense and the present tense

Suppose I'm talking about some design scheme. I say something like "foo was once designed and implemented in a way called bar that ...". Then I want to introduce the original scheme "bar", for ...
-2
votes
2answers
521 views

“Became” vs “become”

I'm not sure about the verb tense I should use here: Run this definition so that the previous changes become/became visible. I think the correct one is Present Simple but it sounds better with ...
-1
votes
2answers
209 views

Rule for present perfect continuous

Consider the following sentence: Have you been watering the plants? Is the above sentence grammatically correct? Or should it be something like: Have you been watering the plants for 5 minutes? ...
0
votes
2answers
391 views

Which is right for present tense? [closed]

I would like to know which of the below sentences is right to use for present tense- I sick. I'm sick. I'm sicking.
0
votes
3answers
231 views

Since he left, nobody cares/has cared?

I would like to say that since one of my colleagues left, nobody cares about our project anymore. Or nobody has cared? EDIT: I want to say that nobody cares now and it started when X left.
2
votes
3answers
936 views

“I am gonna have to” vs. “I have to”

What is the difference between "I am gonna have to" and "I have to"? When would you use the first one? update: I am specifically asking about situations like the one described here.
10
votes
3answers
7k views

Difference between “are you done” and “have you done.”

I was just wondering, how can we differentiate "are you done?" and "have you done?", and what is the appropriate way to use each?