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Russia flagKristina Yurina
Hey guys! Happy new year! Could you please tell me how to say better, I am still strangling about Past perfect and present perfect 🤦‍♀️ Thanks in advance! So How to say right? . 4-5 days is more than enough when you have seen all attractions in the city. Or 4-5 days is more than enough when you had seen all attractions in the city The condition is that you have already been in the city and seen all the sights, and you yourself have already come home from the city. I think the first one is right, yes?

Answers · 5

1
Hi, Kristina! The first one is correct! In order for the second one to be correct, it would have to be "4-5 days was more than enough when you had seen all attractions in the city". However, even this sounds awkward. For this specific construction, stick with the first sentence. Best wishes, David.
1
Most people have already answered your specific question, but I want to add something here since you said that you are struggling with the two tenses. The only time you may find yourself needing the past perfect is if you are already writing in the past tense and you want to clarify the time-frame of two events. If you have two events in the past tense, the one that happened first will be in the past perfect. For example: I had already eaten dinner by the time he came home from work. First I ate dinner. Next he came home from work. The past perfect clarifies that time frame. Since your original sentence was in the present tense, then naturally you would use the present perfect for the event that happened prior to the present time. Present perfect refers to any event that happened some undefined time in the past, before now, but including now. IE: have seen all the sights in town since I arrived here. I hope this explanation helps.
1
Neither really makes much sense unless in a context in which you are referring to the amount of time needed for something else after having seen the sights. For example : “How long should I stay there if I want to explore the countryside out of the city ?” “Four to five days is more than enough when you have seen all the attractions in the city.” The 4 - 5 days is in addition to the time already spent in the city. If the sentence refers to the time needed to see the sights in the city, then : “Four or five days is enough to see all the attractions in the city”, or : “Four or five days was enough to see all the attractions in the city” The first, using the present tense, is a general statement, and the second, in the past tense, refers to someone’s experience. You don’t need to use either present perfect or past perfect in this case.
0
1. “I am still struggling with past perfect and present perfect.” 2. I am not very sure what you want to express. “4-5 days was more than enough to see all the sights in the city.”

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