A student has written:
Still, I have already been aware of most of the information even
before watching the video.
It doesn't feel right and I would normally use a past simple here. I'm on my two hundredth script and losing my ability to reason, or to adequately explain to myself why it should be past simple (I think it's 'before' as this puts the time as completed, so he can't use the present perfect notion of unfinished time). What I need to know is:
- Should it be simple past of present perfect here, or doesn't it matter?
- Why/why not?
All help gratefully received.
Best Answer
As Barrie and Elf said, your intuition is correct. The basis of the error is a subtle one, as with most matters affecting simple past versus present perfect in English, but maybe you can it explain it to the student along the following lines (which you’ll need to adapt to whatever you’ve told them about this tense).
The basic idea is, run through the list of uses you’ve given your students for present perfect and explain why none is apt here.