#English - Socratic Sunday - Question on the perfect tense...

This is another Sunday and so another Socratic Sunday throwback - a question/answer I worked on from the now read-only site Socratic.org. This question deals with verb tense...

Question

"I have to clean up after him." Is this a perfect have?

Answer

No. See below for more:

Analysis:

We're dealing with simple tenses vs perfect tenses.

In a simple tense , we're told that something can occur. For instance:

I study (present simple)
I studied (past simple)
I will study (future simple)

whereas in a perfect tense, something that was ongoing is now complete:

I have been studying (present perfect)
I had been studying (past perfect)
I will have been studying (future perfect)

And I think this what the question is referring to - if the use of "have" in the sentence "I have to clean up after him" is a use of a perfect tense.

The answer is no - the verb "have" can also be used in a simple tense , such as:

I have a cold (present simple)
I had a cold (past simple)
I will have a cold (future simple)

One of the ways "have" can be used is to indicate a necessity , a need, or something that you are required to get done. This can be accomplished by using "have" in a simple way:

I have to do my homework (present simple)
I had to do my homework (past simple)
I will have to do my homework (future simple)

Or to use the wording in the question:

I have to clean up after him
I had to clean up after him
I will have to clean up after him

If the use of "have" were in a perfect tense, we'd have something like this:

I have been cleaning up after him
I had been cleaning up after him
I will have been cleaning up after him

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Questions and comments always welcome!