Actions That Terminate At Present Moment

Question

Which tense should I use for actions which terminate exactly at the present time and the final point of the action is the present moment ? Can present perfect be used for this type of situation?

Let's imagine a boy who left his house to go to his school sometime before the present time and I am a teacher standing at the door of his school now. Can I say "He has come to school" or "He came to school" at the first time he be at the borderline of the school when his coming exactly terminates at the present time and the action includes now(the present time)?

I think using past tense is not appropriate here because the action includes the present moment and using past form requires the action to locate in some past section at the timeline.

Noaman Ali · Answer

In general speech, the former, "He has come to school", needs more information when being said. But that's not to mean that the former can be rendered ungrammatical as the verb come is an intransitive verb. Nonetheless, I'd rephrase it in two ways:

He has finally come to school!

The above can be said when the person is still entering the school compound, and is mostly said when the teacher/pedagogue is exasperated.

If you want to use the latter usage he came to school, then I'd associate a time with it. When you just say he came to school, that'd leave a lot of questions unanswered. For example, when did he come to school? This is because of the time lapsed between the person's current location and the time when the person's entered the school compound.

Actions That Terminate At Present Moment

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