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Could you explain further please? American English most definitely has a distinction between "I ate" and "I have eaten".
by workinthehead 8y ago
Could you explain further please? American English most definitely has a distinction between "I ate" and "I have eaten".
- bloak 8y agoI don't know enough about American English to "explain", unfortunately. I just notice that American speakers sometimes use one form when the other would be required in British English. For all I know, from an American point of view, perhaps British speakers are failing to make a distinction. However, something seems to have happened to those verb forms, and I think the change must have happened in colloquial American English because in this particular respect it's colloquial American that is different, while formal American, formal British and informal British all seem to agree with each other, as far as I can tell.
- workinthehead 8y agoI wonder if you're referring to what's described in the first section of this article: http://www.onestopenglish.com/grammar/grammar-reference/american-english-vs-british-english/differences-in-american-and-british-english-grammar-article/152820.article http://www.onestopenglish.com/grammar/grammar-reference/amer... As a lifelong American, I don't think that this is 100% widespread, many of the supposed Americanisms sound borderline "wrong" to me, and the only one I would favor is "She just left" instead of "She's just left". And, having a German family history myself, I have trouble seeing this as a particularly German phenomenon.