h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

But surely, if someone asked "Where did you go?", the natural reply would be "I went to the Zoo".

That would be if you're not at the zoo anymore--remember, I answered my cell phone while PaperKid is looking at the elephants

So did you see, have you seen or are you seeing the orang-utans?

This zoo doesn't have any.

So you didn't, haven't or are not going to see any!

Somedays I wish I were an orang-utan and can just say 'uuuggghh' and everyone understands me!

Am I having a good time at the Zoo by the way?

Isn't there something about the plural of Orangutans being Orangs?

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Depends on what you saw while you were there!

Well I didn't see the Orangs apparently.

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Nice oxymoron.

An orangutan can also be written orang-utan, orang utan and orangutang with the plural being formed in the usual way - add an 's', orangutans.

'orangs' is a contraction; probably for convenience or because of insecurity about the spelling.

i don't pretend to be any great shakes at language, but my take on present perfect is that it references the actions of the subject, not an event the subject has been attending. i really don't see how the time frame of the event the subject was attending, eg a picasso exhibit or a zoo, comes into it.

I'm with you on this one

"...the present perfect describes the present state of the subject as a result of a past action or state (i.e., the subject is being talked about in the present)"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Present_perfect

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It's whether the time frame of the event coincides with the time frame the speaker finds themselves in when they are talking about it, (and sometimes this can be subjective).


I've seen three football matches last year.
I saw three football matches last year.

I saw three football matches this year. (a bit wonky, this sentence)
I've seen three football matches this year.

this is simple recency. it doesn't go to whether the football is ongoing or not. not does it rule out the use of the simple past.

One American saying I can't bring myself to like is 'I don't got it,' when they mean 'I haven't got it.'

Just thought I'd drop that in with no regard to what has been posted before. Now, reading the backlog, I have two thoughts:

1. Grammar's complicated, isn't it?
2. Trip to the zoo would be fun .

Don't forget to go see the oranges-outanes

*Wonders when he'll be picked up from the Zoo.*

re posting 29: no, keith, you're not. it is/was/has been specifically stated in posting 7 that keith is/was/has been from new zealand

So what do Americans named Keith call a Zoo?

Has keith brought his tralor back yet, I've some furnature that needed shifting, needs shifting, err needs to be shifted.

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Really? I've never heard anyone say that in my life. I doubt it's actually an "American saying".

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It's fairly simple. You use the present perfect to talk about:

1. unfinished past actions
- I've lived in Seville for 15 years (I still live here)
2. recent past actions with a result in the present (ie. news)
- Ten people have been killed in a bank robbery in London.
3. experiences
- I've been to London twice.

The present perfect is concerned about the action, not the time it happened. If you use a time reference (yesterday, last summer, in 1996) you then have to use the past simple.
- I went to London in 1996 and 2004


az