Visited vs Have Visited vs Had Visited: How to Use Them Correctly

Common Errors in English Sentences: Using correct tense an important part of every business communication as it reflects your personality, especially when you’re communicating with someone who is well-versed in English language.

Are you a non-native English speaker, confused between “visited vs. have visited”? This post will help you understand the grammar rules once and for all.

Using correct tense is an important part of every business communication as it reflects your personality, especially when you’re communicating with someone who is well-versed in the English language.

It’s quite common to find many non-native English users confusing “past tense” with “present perfect tense”.

So, let’s take a look at some examples below:

So, what do you think is wrong with these examples?

Explanation: This is a pretty common error in Asian countries where English communication is largely affected by their mother tongue. Many non-English languages carry grammar rules which can be very different from the grammar rules we follow in the English language.

In the English language, when you describe an event that occurs in the past, i.e. yesterday or last week, you essentially use the “past simple” tense of the verb.

In the examples above, “yesterday” and “this past week” are both “adverbs”, meaning they define the nature of the verb that precedes them.

In the first example, the speaker talks about an event (visiting the doctor) with information about its occurrence (this past week).

Please, note that the “timing of the event” (or time adverb) is of utmost importance here, which decides the “tense form” the verb must take in the sentence.

Here, “this past week” refers to an event that clearly occurred in the past. Therefore, the event itself (visiting the doctor) must take “the past simple tense”.

Hence, it would be right to express yourself in the following way.

I visited the doctor this past week.

Similarly, the correct version of the second example would be:

Did you visit your mother yesterday?

To make it even clearer for you, here’s how you should break the sentences to understand which tense they should take.

I + visited + the doctor + this past week

Visited = the “past simple tense” of the verb “visit”.

This past week = the adverb denoting “timing of the event”.

Know Your Adverbs

It’s important to know your adverbs well enough in order to form correct sentences, using the appropriate tense.

Let’s consider a few examples with different adverbs.

Now, Currently, Right Now, Today

You can use either present continuous or present perfect tense with these verbs. However, you can never use “past simple” with these.

For example, the following examples would sound plain stupid:

However, there are some “adverbs” that can take both “past tense” as well as “present perfect tense” depending on the context.

Here are Some Examples:

Oxford Dictionary defines “recently” as an adverb denoting “at a recent time” and “not long ago”.

Explanation:

In Example #1, we are using a perfect tense in order to name the action as the source of the present state. Whereas, in Example #2, we are using a past tense since the action is one of a sequence of past actions, a narrative.

Please, keep in mind the present perfect is a present tense, which makes a statement about the situation at the time of speaking.

However, the following example would be incorrect.

❎ I have purchased that CD recently.

This is because when you are talking about purchasing “that CD”, you have presumably purchased it in the past. Therefore, you should rather say, “I purchased that CD recently”.

Visited vs Had Visited

Believe it or not, many non-native English users find it hard to differentiate between past simple tense and past perfect tense. They often wonder if the two could be used interchangeably.

The truth is both these tenses offer different contexts to the event. Take a look at the following examples:

Which of the above examples is correct?

Answer: The first one.

Explanation:

We use past tense when the time is specified, e.g. yesterday.

We use past perfect tense only when we refer to another event (a concurrent event) in the past. In other words, it must carry some context – “what happened after you visited the doctor yesterday?”

For example:

In short, without any context to “the other activity” that was done after watching television, using “had watched” would be incorrect.

Therefore, if you only mean to mention “watching television” in the past, simply say, “I watched television yesterday”.

I hope this helps. Please, let me know if you have any questions.

Source: Stack Exchange and Quora