Saturday, August 24, 2019

grammaticality - Why present perfect in "How many points have you scored this season"?





Normally we use the past simple instead of present perfect when an action happened at a specific time in the past and is not linked with the present.



Why is this sentence grammatically correct?





How many points have you scored this season?




Don't the words "this season" indicate a specific time here? Why can't I use past tense instead? As in, "How many points did you score this season?"



Why is the latter wrong?


Answer



When we ask "How many points have you scored this season?", it means that the season is still going on. It's like asking "How many points have you scored in this season so far?"



In the case of "How many points did you score...", the season has come to an end and is past. So it cannot be referred to as "this season". However, you can ask "How many points did you score (in the) last season?" and that will be grammatically correct.



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