Hammer's German Grammar and Usage by Martin Durrell & Katrin Kohl & Claudia Kaiser

Author:Martin Durrell & Katrin Kohl & Claudia Kaiser [Durrell, Martin & Kohl, Katrin & Kaiser, Claudia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Grammar, Non-Fiction, Educational, Language, German
ISBN: 9781315722634
Google: 6BWFtQEACAAJ
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group
Published: 2017-09-12T23:00:00+00:00

In practice, the past tense could be substituted for any of the perfect tenses in this passage, or vice versa, without any real difference in meaning.

12.2.3 Past actions or events with continuing relevance in the present

(a) The perfect tense typically indicates a past action with present relevance

The perfect tense is usual in both spoken and written German to indicate a past action or event whose effect is relevant or apparent at the moment of speaking. Linking the past with the present is also the typical function of the English perfect tense, and in practice the perfect tense is normally used in German in such contexts, i.e.:

(i) where the result of a past action or event is still evident at the moment of speaking:

Sie hat sich das Bein gebrochen (her leg is still in plaster)

Es hat in der Nacht geschneit (there’s snow on the ground)

Meine Tante ist gestern angekommen (and she’s still here) She’s broken her leg

It snowed in the night

My aunt arrived last night

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