I’ve been
everywhere, man, looking for someone … searching for someone … Where have you
been all my life?
A
shout-out here to the pop singer, Rihanna, whose 2011 hit song, “Where Have You
Been,” has provided, perhaps, a key to explaining when to say, for example, “I
saw” vs “I have seen;” or, in Rihanna’s case, “Where have you been” vs “Where
were you.”
Native
speakers of English might not be aware of the difficulty foreign learners of English
have in understanding the “have been” verb tense, grammatically known as the
present perfect. This is because that tense is either rarely used, or simply
does not exist in many languages, including French, Latin American Spanish and
Portuguese, and German. In those languages, the tense known as the “simple
past” (saw, had, played, did, etc.) usually does the job -- “Did you already
see that movie?” -- with another form of assist from the present tense that
translates as: “I wait for you since two hours!”
When
Rihanna belts out the chorus, “Where HAVE YOU BEEN (caps mine) all my life?” she
should be asking a new-found love why he has not shown up until now. (Note: Do
not use this whole song as a good example – just the chorus.) The idea of “now”
is key in the present perfect: this tense expresses an idea rooted in the past
– in this case, why wasn’t Mr. Right around, say, five or ten years earlier –
and relates to the present. But the happy fact is, Mr. (or Ms.) Right is there
at last – now. Rihanna, born in 1988, is currently 26 years old; her man, let’s
say, is 29. “Where have you been all my life” is a happy question, because
there is still plenty of time for them to be together.
On
the other hand, if Rihanna sang, “Where WERE YOU all my life?” the story would
suddenly change: the verb “were” is the simple past tense, meaning an action is
over, completed, finished. The simple past tense makes it sound like Rihanna’s
life is just about over, completed, finished; that maybe she’s now 99 years old
and has discovered her true love at the very last minute. “Where were you all
my life?” suggests that there is little or no time left to enjoy this
relationship.
In
a less dramatic context, let’s say your company has transferred you to New York
from France for three years. At first you are so excited, thinking of all the
places you want to see while in the United States and that being here for three
years should give you plenty of time to explore. The reality is, work is
time-consuming, and for one reason or another, your first year flies by with
your never having left New York City. You go to a party and someone asks you,
“How do you like the United States?” You reply:
WRONG: I like New York but I didn’t go anywhere
else.
RIGHT: I like New York but I haven’t gone
anywhere else.
The
“right” response relates to now. Since you have only been in New York for one
year out of three, you still have two years left to see the Grand Canyon,
Washington, D.C., or lie on a beach in Miami.
The
“wrong” response would only be correct for when, after three years, you are
back in Paris and someone asks how you liked the United States. At that point,
your time in the States is over, completed, and finished.
The
“have done”/present perfect tense does not focus on when you do something – it
just cares whether you have done it or are still doing it. The simple past
tense is all about “when”: last week, a minute ago, the day you were born, and
so on. So the sentence, “I have seen that movie” is perfect for when you and a
friend are trying to pick a move to see. But “I have seen that movie last week”
is wrong, because “last week” is over, so the correct verb should be “saw,” or
“I saw that movie last week.”
Native
English speakers never confuse their tenses in the above situation; however,
there are times when they do mix the two, such as in, “Did you eat lunch yet?”
(It will probably sound like “Djoo-weet lunch yet?”) That sentence, and similar
usages, are common enough to have become standard English – and yet technically
the question conflicts with the “rules” of each tense: “Did you eat” = some
point in the past, but “yet” = “up until now.” The truth is, native English
speakers typically do not know the rules behind these two tenses (and probably
wouldn't care if they did). The decisive factor here is that it’s quicker to
say “djoo-weet yet” than “have you eaten yet” and since speed and ease of
saying things often (and in other languages, too) trump being “correct,” the
two forms of past tense have found a certain amicable co-existence.
Has
this helped you? If so, just ask Rihanna where she has been all your life!
