I'm trying to get rid of some gaps in my knowledge of Pre-Int. grammar, so I'm working with a PET course book. And I've discovered some confusing things in some quite easy tasks…
1) The task is to use Present Perfect:
I … (phone) my Granny and I … (see) my cousins and I … (say) goodbye to them.
My answer is:
I've phoned my Granny and I've seen my cousins and I've said goodbye to them.
Well, due to the keys I'm wrong and it should be said instead of have said:
I've phoned my Granny and I've seen my cousins and I said goodbye to them.
But why? I've searched for similar sentences and I've found a couple:
I have seen and heard this many times anecdotally.
I have seen and done a number of strange things.
Ok, it's clear here – we have only one subject, so something like "I've seen … and said …" is fine.
But in my example there are two subjects. So, is it still ok to use one auxiliary verb instead of two? What I want to understand is, is my sentence wrong or are they both possible?
Best Answer
I think what they're probably looking for is for you to use have only once in the sentence, and to have it govern all the verbs.
That is a compact way of saying
Note that this example is not wrong, it's just wordy. It could be used if you are trying to emphasize each of the steps.
Wordier still would be
This has a rhetorical redundancy to it that should be used only if you are pretending to be a tragic actor declaiming from the stage.
Now, if you want to draw a distinction between the two subjects, and sever the relationship of their predicates, try using a comma.
Now the two predicates that relate to the cousins are treated individually.