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Can I use the present perfect for a future scenario?

English Language & Usage Asked on November 10, 2020

I’m working on some educational material and I’ve just finished assessing people’s current opinions toward a certain course. Now I want to say that I’ll be following up with them in the future to gauge their opinion again.

I want to see if any changes occur between now and then.

Is this correct?

I’ll check in at the end of the module to see if your opinion of the course material has changed.

Edit:

‘Module’ in this context pretty much a synonym for ‘course’.

One Answer

In English, you are free to pick the time reference. The reference can even change over the course of the narrative, so long as the reference remains clear.

  • A man walks into a bar ....

Time reference: the moment he walked into the bar, not the moment that the story is told.

  • A man walks into a pub and orders a meal.

The walking and the ordering happen at different times, but we are accustomed to ‘following the camera’, so both verbs can be in the present tense. Alternatively, the ‘present’ is considered sufficiently malleable that it covers the time of both verbs.

  • A child walks into a school and walks out a man.

There’s obviously a long period between the two verbs, but we’re still ‘following the camera’.

In your example, the time reference for the sentence as a whole is ‘now’, hence the use of the future with “will”. But the clause headed by “to see” uses a different time reference - the moment you “check in” - relative to which the possible change in opinion occurs in the past.

That is, if the camera is (‘now’) showing the checking in, then you are allowing a change of opinion prior to that ‘scene’. In this context, your use of the present perfect is fine.

Answered by Lawrence on November 10, 2020

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