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Along with others, I agree both OP's sentences are "valid", but neither existing answer seems to address the issue of whether either is "preferred". The mention of "perfect tense" in the title is irre …

I admit I can't exactly explain why, but it seems to me including the word just (which in principle is syntactically irrelevant) makes Past Perfect more acceptable than it would have been. Consider... …

Following the KISS principle, don't bother with either had or have. Both sentences would still be perfectly ok. As to whether the two sentences differ in meaning, OP's post already answers that quest …

There is no grammatic or semantic distinction between "I saw..." and "I have seen that movie." And that's still the case if you append, say "...twice". If you append "...last year", many people will …

I think OP's basic premise is mistaken (Here are about 5,700 results from Google Books for "I have wanted to ask", so it's certainly not true that we never say it. And in some contexts ("I've always …

"I have come to notice [something]" ...normally emphasises the progressive nature of the action (i.e. - it didn't happen instantaneously). Per JeffSahol's comment below, in some circumstances it may …

Both versions of (b) are valid, but one difference is "When did you see it?" is far more common... Only my opinion, but on average I feel that "when have you seen it?" is more likely to be accusato …

1: Mom asked Gramma why she hasn't been answering 2: Mom asked Gramma why she hadn't been answering 3: Mom asked Gramma why she didn't answer In both #1 and #2, the implication is that Gr …

To a first approximation both OP's sentences are valid - certainly they both mean exactly the same. But if I'm going to get "picky", I don't much like the first one... ?I sent you a letter a few d …

OP's friend has some odd ideas. It's true that there's an increasing tendency to use to do rather than to have as the "auxiliary verb" in such constructions (see this NGram for the steady rise of did …

In this particular context I think neither form is really correct. The preceding sentence uses present tense "they study", so for consistency it should be... They examine over 100 patients...

You don't normally use Present Perfect with stative verbs (have, be, like, seem, prefer, understand, doubt, know, etc.) Here's a longer list - in general, they apply to states that last for some time. …

It has been used as the symbol... is correct here. Use Present Perfect when the action referred to started in the past, and either continues (or continues to have relevance) at the time of speaking.