Friday, April 26, 2019

tense - "I have ridden a rollercoaster and now I'm dizzy" - correct or not?


I am not a native English speaker, and the sentence in the title came up yesterday when I was talking with my friend (who is a native English speaker) about English grammar.


Consider the sentence



I have ridden a rollercoaster and now I am dizzy.




(where the intended meaning is that I'm dizzy because of the rollercoaster). In my understanding of present perfect tense, it's use is justified here because I am relating an event of riding a rollercoaster by implying it is the reason I am dizzy right now. However, my friend has said for him this situation is a perfect example of when past simple tense should be used.


I would like to just take his word on that, but I don't see why present perfect is being misused in this sentence. Could anyone clarify why past simple should be used here?


PS. This friend has also mentioned this might be a matter of difference between BrE and AmE (he is American). If this is so, could someone briefly explain how the two are different when it comes to present perfect/past simple distinction?




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