I’m helping an ESL instructor create an answer key for an English exam, and I’m stuck on a couple of the questions. The worst one is:
In the past two weeks, I ______ four tests, and I have another test next week.
“had” or “have had” ?
“have had” seems right to me, but I can’t explain exactly why. The tests are all in the past, so simple past (“had”) makes more sense, but something about “In the past two weeks” suggests “have had”. What do you think?
Actually “have had” is present perfect and that is indeed the correct tense in this case. You use it because it has a result that began in the past and continues through the present.
Both “had” and “have had” sound right to me, but with rather subtly nuanced differences in meaning. I don’t think it’s a fair question for ESL students.
In particular, while “have had” sounds right for the first clause in isolation, if you put “have had” there, it sounds better to have “I will/shall have another test next week” for the second clause (fussy traditional speakers of British English would have “shall”, others would have “will”).
I don’t think it’s a fair question either. Does the ‘past two weeks’ really include the present? Isn’t the last two weeks entirely in the past?
When I briefly taught EFL (just over a year or so), present perfect vs. past was a chapter in the textbook, and the sort of sentence given in the OP would be a typical question. Example sentences would be something like “yesterday, I went to the theatre” and “in the last year, I have gone to the theatre ten times.” The key here is the time frame being discussed: Is it an isolated time frame in the past, or is it a point in the past continuing to the present? The correct answer–at least the answer the ESL book is expecting–for the OP is “have had.” If the question was phrased “Two weeks ago I ____ four tests,” the answer would be “had.”
To me, “In the last year, I went to the theatre ten times” sounds rather more idiomatic. Yes, I understand that English-language tenses are complex and subtle (just as they are in many other languages!), but I think a distinction is being made here that doesn’t work for native speakers.
Hmm, interesting. I’m glad everyone else in confused too. 
However, TV time is definitely right that “have had” is present not past perfect. D’oh!
I don’t agree here, and my English was formed not far from your location. “Have gone” is definitely correct in my view.
– “[In the past year] I have gone to the theater 10 times.” – There’s still time for that number to increase, because if I go tonight, then I will have gone to the theater 11 times.
– “[Last year] I went to the theater 10 times.” – The period of time under discussion is over. The record is set. Even if I go to the theater tonight, the figure for the term I’m talking about doesn’t change.
You can’t switch the verbs in these two sentences.
In the OP, “have had” is correct, because “in the past two weeks” implies that the exam period is still ongoing (which is confirmed explicitly by the second sentence).
However, if it had said “last week,” then the answer would be different, because the term under discussion will have closed. “Last week and the week before, I had two tests.”
The question is entirely inappropriate for inclusion on a test for students who are presumably striving to acquire a rudimentary skill set for English.
The target audience comprised of the students taking the test is trying to attain communicative competence in the language. That is, they need to understand the conventions of the English language so that they can use it in a meaningful, functional sense.
To split hairs between proper usage of perfect tenses and clearly delineate the gray areas that separate the realms would seem pointless and far wide of the big picture.
In other words, if one of the students said to a native English speaker, “In the past two weeks, I had four tests and I have another test next week,” do you really think the response of the English speaker would be one of bafflement, then pause, then: “Oh, you mean you have had four tests in the past two weeks…”
Or vice versa. You see the point I am trying to make.
I’m not a native Ohioan – I was born in Australia, and lived* in Australia for most of my life. However, I also live most of my first 10 years in England.
There’s obvious room for disagreement here among native speakers, which (IMHO) makes it a bad question, for ESL students or any other kind of students.
I think it does work with native speakers. If I’m being careful, I’ll say “In the last year, I’ve gone to the theatre ten times” and “Last year, I went to the theatre ten times.” Likewise, “Have you ever been to France” vs “Did you ever go to France”?
Now, in casual conversation a lot of the more complex tenses do get dropped, and people will use simple past for present perfect, past perfect, etc. I wouldn’t necessarily say using the present perfect is less idiomatic. It’s certainly more carfeul and more precise, but I know plenty of people who really do speak that way.
You have to realize though that the ESL lesson plan will (perhaps I should say should) cover this topic thoroughly. It teaches students to look out for words like “since” and “over the…,” “in the …,” etc. as flags suggesting the present perfect. Now, I agree that in casual speech there is some fluidity between the tenses, but the students taking an ESL class are often aiming to take an English proficiency test as some point, so I have to teach them how these tenses are formally used. I may drop a note saying some people don’t make a fine distinction, or in casual speech tenses are often simplified, but I have to make sure they understand what the “correct” answer is for their tests.
Another case where casual speakers often foul up the tenses is conditionals. There are four types: first, second, third, and zero conditional. Some people very naturally form their conditionals but, more often than not among my peers, the tenses are all over the place. Still, when I taught, I had to teach these conditionals formally and had to be very careful about my own use of conditionals, so as not to confuse my students.
I think I’d only ask “Did you ever go to France?” if I knew that the person was at some time in the past thinking of going to France, and I wanted to know what happened at that time. Otherwise, with “ever”, I suspect that you are only going to use the simple past tense for continuing processes, rather than for events, e.g., “Did you ever smoke?” or “Did you ever go to college?” – meaning, “Did you ever habitually smoke?” for example, rather than “Have you ever (even just one time) smoked?”
Exactly.
I agree here, too. The “ever” example throws more nuances into the question, and perhaps was not the best example on my part. In the OP, the structure “in the past two weeks” is angling for the present perfect, just as starting the sentence with “since” would.
Suppose you’re in the process of taking a test right now, and someone interrupts you, to ask whether this is your first test in the past two weeks. If this is the fourth, your answer would be, “I have taken four tests.”
Of course if you’re a nitpicker, your answer would be “When I complete this test, I will have taken four tests in the past two weeks.”
I agree with this. The period of time you’re talking about has ended and does not continue to the present.
I get the impression the perfect tense is used somewhat more frequently in British English than American. For example, in newspapers, in British usage, there’s a tendency to use the perfect tense in the first paragraph that gives the overview of the story, whereas Americans may prefer sticking to the simple past tense. There are often exceptions to this, but that seems to be the overall pattern to me. English is not my first language though, so this may just be my imagination.
I’ve heard Americans and Australians say that about Brits - that we use ‘shall’ more - but I’ve hardly ever heard it used by Brits. I’ve heard it used more by posh Americans in movies.
‘Idiomatic?’ I don’t think you meant that word.
If a native speaker said ‘in the last year, I went to the theatre ten times,’ I’d assume that they were talking about last year - the year that’s over - not the year that’s continuing now. If they meant the year that’s continuing now, they’d use present perfect. Maybe there are some dialects that don’t bother, but it’s certainly not widespread.
That’s because you use past simple where the time or the action is complete. Present perfect is where the time period is incomplete and the action is either incomplete or a repeated action that may repeat again (and it’s also used for reporting recent news - ‘a plane has crashed in the Hudson.’)
TBH, there’s room for disagreement among native speakers on any grammar issue, because most native speakers don’t have much explicit knowledge of grammar and, well, don’t really know what they’re talking about when it comes to people learning English rather than just speaking it from childhood.