The simple past tense indicates that an activity or situation began
and ended at a particular time in the past.The present perfect expresses the idea that something happened (or
never happened) before now, at an unspecified time in the past.The
exact time it happened is not important. It also expresses the
repetition of an activity before now. The exact time of each
repetition is not important.
Even though I understand the explanation above, I can't figure out: If the present perfect states the idea that something happened in the past, why not use the simple past?
For example, would you please explain the following sentence to tell the difference between these two tenses?
The plane crashed there.
The plane has crashed there.
What is the biggest difference between them?
Best Answer
Present Perfect implies a strong connection to the present (time of speaking). Often, the connection is no more than that the past action being referred to happened very recently.
Simple Past doesn't necessarily imply an action occurred further back in the past than something described using Present Perfect - it's just a more "general-purpose" verb form. Thus #3 and #4 are both normal English.