italki - I made/have made coffee for you – for native English speakers. Let's say that I have made coffee for

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Mikkel

I made/have made coffee for you – for native English speakers. Let's say that I have made coffee for my wife and knock at the door to her room. Am I right that in English the following two ways of telling her are interchangeable?: ”I've made coffee for you”. ”I made coffee for you”. I'm asking about this because, in Danish, tenses and the way we use them are very similar to English tenses, but in Danish I would only say ”I've made coffee for you” in the above situation. That, I believe, is because in Danish I would always make it clear in a context like the above that my having made coffee is relevant now in the present, because I made it so that you can drink it now or whenever you want and I do that by using the present perfect. Thanks for your help!

2018年3月14日 15:36

回答 · 16

If I make a coffee for my husband, or at work for colleagues, I would actually say "I've made you a coffee!" Meaning, I have just made it and here it is. Not sure whether that is good grammar, but it is what we would say here.

2018年3月14日

US: I would probably say: "I made you some coffee." Of your two choices "I have made coffee for you" sounds a little more distancing and formal than "I made coffee for you." If I heard the former from my husband, I'd wonder why he's making a pronouncement rather than a statement.

2018年3月14日

You could use either, but there's ever such a slight difference in focus. Any idea what that might be??

2018年3月14日

Rather than an answer (as I'm not quite sure either), I am just adding to the discussion: I think I made coffee works better here even though both are correct. I have made coffee for you would not be a sentence people use casually while talking to their wife. It also seems to stress more on the act of making coffee rather than the coffee that was made. "I made coffee for you, would you like it now?" "I made coffee for you, it's on the table." Just my two cents! Edit: Typo. (Also, US speaker here!)

2018年3月14日