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27
I’ve worked here since 1960.
He has played football for five years already.
In such cases the inclusive present perfect is rendered in Russian by the present tense.
4. The present perfect is also used in subordinate adverbial clauses of time and condition introduced
by the corresponding conjunctions to denote a future action taking place before a certain moment in the
future.
I’ll stay with you until you’ve finished everything.
Wait till I’ve written the notice.
Sometimes adverbials of place and objects expressed by words describing situations may serve in an oblique
way as past time markers, connecting the activities not only with places and situations, but also with the time
when the actions took place, accordingly the past indefinite is used.
Did you meet him in London? (when you were in London)
Did you like his singing? (when he sang)
The same is true of special questions beginning with where:
Where did you see him?
Where did you buy this hat?
Note 1:
In spesial questions with when only the past indefinite is possible, though the answer can be either in the
past indefinite or in the present perfect depending on the actual state of affairs:
-
When did he come?
- He came yesterday.
- He has just come.
Note 2:
The present perfect, not the past indefinite is used with the verb to be in the sense of to go, to visit even
though the adverbials of place are used:
Have you been to London?
She says she’s been to Paris three times.
The meaning of such statements is ‘was there at a certain time, but is there no longer’.
Although the time of the actions denoted by the present perfect is not specified, it is generally understood as
more or less recent, not long past.
§ 25. The ways of translating the present perfect into Russian vary due to the peculiarities of its time
orientation and the vagueness of its aspective meaning. It can therefore be translated into Russian either by the
past tense (if it is exclusive present perfect) or by the present tense (if it is inclusive present perfect). The latter
applies to statal verbs and some actional durative verbs.
She has gone home.
Она уже ушла домой.
(The past tense, perfective.)
The red ballon has burst.
Красный шарик лопнул.