I have to write this on a website, which one is better?
Are you looking for [...](description of our service)? You've come / You came to the right place!
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3Also you may say, "You are in the right place!" Or "This is the right place!"– GEdgarApr 3, 2018 at 14:17
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4@GEdgar +1 Even more idiomatic: "You're in the right place!"– chbApr 3, 2018 at 15:18
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“You’ve come to the right place.” This sentence sounds to my ear, like it’s missing some kind of introductory statement before it, like “Welcome to _____, You’ve come to the right place.” Without a greeting, it seems more cliche, more like marketing line rather than an assurance of quality.– M.MatApr 3, 2018 at 22:44
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4 Answers
When you
- mention something that happened in the past,
- its timing isn't mentioned and is perhaps no significance to your mention, and
- you're mentioning it because of its significance in relation to something happening in the present
then the present perfect is suitable. In this case, "You came to the right place" isn't grammatically incorrect, but it doesn't express as explicitly what "You've come to the right place" does: That, because of your having come here, you are now, in the present, in the right place (to receive good service, to eat a delicious meal, etc.).
This use of the present perfect is summarized here.
answered Apr 3, 2018 at 14:15
I hear "you've come to the right place" as the cliché.
"You came to the right place" sounds more like the speaker is surprised that the subject found the correct location. Maybe they're bad with directions?
This is the extract from this web-site https://dictionary.cambridge.org
British and American English: verb tense forms
" The present perfect is less common in AmE than BrE. AmE speakers often use the past simple in situations where BrE speakers use the present perfect, especially with words such as already and yet ".
Perfect Aspect in British English and American English "In fact, British and American English differ in their use of the perfect. The perfect is more widely used in British English. Where a British speaker would tend to say Have you seen Bill today?, an American speaker would tend to say Did you see Bill today?
Where a British English speaker would tend to say I have just had breakfast, an American speaker would tend to say I just had breakfast." (James R. Hurford, Grammar: A Student's Guide. Cambridge University Press, 1994)
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1This is good info and I nearly upvoted it - I think it would be a better answer if you could give an example of its applying to the OP's special case. That example could even be "as a native English speaker, I hear "you came to the right place" in similar contexts in the US". Apr 4, 2018 at 1:51
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@WetSavannaAnimalakaRodVance I did, but as it seems, in this community, even this web-site dictionary.cambridge.org, is not a reliable source of information. What else could be said ?– BeqaApr 4, 2018 at 4:24
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Hmmm. It would likely be in the OED, but that is paywalled. A shame, because your comment certainly accords with my experience: the two definitely have a difference in meaning to me as in the other answers, but my experience is that tenses are quite different in the US, the differences are subtle and outside speakers (British, Indian, Australian like me) do not really appreciate this. For instance, I'm guessing there is quite a bit of detailed aspect information in some of the Southern dialect past tenses ("I just gone done that ..." and a huge variety of like phrases) that I know are ... Apr 4, 2018 at 6:00
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... I know are precise and distinctly meaningful to the speakers, but which go right over my head, as much as I try to have them explained to me. Just like I've never felt comfortable with the French imperfect, even though I have lived there at various times for quite a long time. BTW I'm upvoting anyway for the above reasons. Apr 4, 2018 at 6:01
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As an advanced EFL speaker, I was thinking about this answer before I saw it. +1 Apr 4, 2018 at 8:31
The difference is subtle, and it's between the present perfect and the simple past tenses.
You've come to the right place!
This is the present perfect. As of right now, we consider the statement to be true, and explicitly completed, "completed" being equated to "perfect". It is a strong completion.
You came to the right place!
This is the simple past. At some unspecified point in the past, the statement was true. It might no longer be true. It is also implicitly completed but only because it's not a continuous tense (compare You are/were coming to the right place). It is a weak completion.
The present perfect is stronger, the simple past vaguer. For your website you want to make a strong, bold statement. The present perfect is the form to go for here.
