|
There is nothing wrong with your son's sentence, which is written in the simple
past tense. The teacher must have misunderstood the difference between the
present perfect tense and
the simple past tense, and assumed that all
sentences in the simple past tense must state
the time of an action.
Let me summarize the differences between
these two tenses:
1. The present perfect tense is used to convey
the meaning that something happened at an
unstated time in the past, and the time when it
happened is not important, e.g. "I have seen the
film." (What is important here is the fact that I
have seen the film, NOT when I saw it.)
2. But that does NOT mean that every sentence that does not state the time of an action
must be written in the present perfect tense, e.g.
"I saw the film with my mother." NOT "I have
seen the film with my mother."
The sentences in the simple past tense you
mentioned are correct if they are put in these
correct contexts, e.g. "I bought a car with the
money my father gave me.", "He ate a piece of
cake because he was hungry. ", "They played in
the playground in front of their house." None of
these state the time of the action.
3. However, every sentence that states the
time of a past action must be written in the simple past tense, and not the present perfect tense,
e.g. "I saw the film yesterday." NOT "I have seen
the film yesterday." |
