spikey Posted March 10, 2023 Share Posted March 10, 2023 (edited) One of the many things about modern life which amuses me is the way in which the Old Bill has taken to speaking to the media in Plod-speak. Instead of saying, for example, "What happened was that A entered the room and B then left it", they nowadays say "A has entered the room and B has then left it". It's a long time since O-level English Language, so can somebody please tell me what tense that is? Edited March 10, 2023 by spikey the inevitable typo 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium jjb1970 Posted March 11, 2023 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 11, 2023 No idea, sorry. I solve this one by trying to avoid the media. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Oldddudders Posted March 11, 2023 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 11, 2023 It's live-news-speak. "The Prime Minister's car has left Downing Street and is on its way to Buckingham Palace." But wholly inappropriate in the context you describe. But templated comms are now de rigueur. Every time some ghastly event happens, plod and politicians alike say "My/our thoughts at this time are with the victims' families." when in many cases, plod's thoughts should be concentrated on what happened and whodunnit?! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium 30368 Posted March 11, 2023 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 11, 2023 2 hours ago, Oldddudders said: "The Prime Minister's car has left Downing Street and is on its way to Buckingham Palace." Oh tht's great Ian, a General Election beckons? About b....y time....... Sorry that was a tiny bit political, I shall probably be asked to step down from this website... Kind regards, Richard B 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold PhilH Posted March 11, 2023 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 11, 2023 I would say not very…. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold D9020 Nimbus Posted March 11, 2023 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 11, 2023 I think that this is the Perfect tense (believe it or not). (That's what the tense is called; made up of the appropriate part of "to have" and the past participle.) 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spikey Posted March 11, 2023 Author Share Posted March 11, 2023 3 hours ago, Oldddudders said: But templated comms are now de rigueur. Every time some ghastly event happens, plod and politicians alike say "My/our thoughts at this time are with the victims' families." ... Same in the US ... 9 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium 30368 Posted March 11, 2023 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 11, 2023 I'm very tense too. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Kylestrome Posted March 11, 2023 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 11, 2023 43 minutes ago, 30368 said: I'm very tense too. I'm past tense. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buhar Posted March 11, 2023 Share Posted March 11, 2023 It is the historical present tense and favoured, not surprisingly, by history teachers and presenters "Caesar sweeps into Gaul and captures Asterix" or "Henry dissolves the monasteries and seizes their wealth." It is intended to give some immediacy to the narrative and bring it to life. Quite why the constabulary (presumably after their media training) have adopted it is unknown to me. Alan 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium Jeremy Cumberland Posted March 11, 2023 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 11, 2023 On 10/03/2023 at 17:33, spikey said: "A has entered the room and B has then left it". Both verbs are in the present perfect. This consists of the present tense of "have" ("A has"; "B has") plus the past participle of the verb ("entered"; "left"). "B has left" has an adverb ("then") inserted between the two parts of the verb phrase. Inserting adverbs is common. The present perfect has a number of uses, but the use here is because the action (in the past) has significance in the present. "Significance in the present" can mean a wide range of things, but here the obvious reason for using the present perfect is because A is still in the room and B is no longer in the room. If A entered the room and then left it, then this should be described using the past tense. Similarly, if this is being described some time later (which appears to be the case with your "what happened was..." sentence), then the present perfect would be inappropriate. Saying "A has entered the room" doesn't make sense after A has left the room. In fact, it doesn't make much sense unless A's entering the room is the most recent thing that happened. This sounds like it is spoken as a live commentary and then transcribed. Your original "what happened was..." sentence would have been written some time later from memory of what happened in the past, which is why it uses the past tense. Buhar's suggestion of the historical present might also account for the present perfect here, but if the writer is using the historical present tense then they could use the present tense for both actions ("A enters the room and B then leaves the room"), which is a lot simpler. The historical present tense is widely used in storytelling, but it is poorly suited to factual reporting. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spikey Posted March 11, 2023 Author Share Posted March 11, 2023 Thank you, gentlemen. Verily, every day is a school day here ... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Premium jjb1970 Posted March 12, 2023 RMweb Premium Share Posted March 12, 2023 Lesson will be learned. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RMweb Gold Enterprisingwestern Posted March 12, 2023 RMweb Gold Share Posted March 12, 2023 14 hours ago, Kylestrome said: I'm past tense. I'm past caring. Mike. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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