<p>For example,
during the last ten years, i have ate in my room.</p>
<p>No, it does not necessarily signal the present perfect tense. (By the way, the correct past participle is “eaten” not “ate.”)</p>
<p>oh sorry stupid error…um then what are instances where it does not signal the perfect present? I do not know the mechanics of during.</p>
<p>During Mr. Smith’s class I read the paper. A prepositional phrase using during as the preposition generally tells when something occurred. Grammatical elements that describe when something happened (happens) function as adverbs. Adverbs aren’t limited to any particular tense.</p>
<p>Okay thank you, I have always thought that during a certain amount of years is from the beginning of that year to the end. So like during the last 50 years, would be from 50 years in the past to the present. Thus it would need present perfect.</p>
<p>Hah - I may be too old to remember what a present perfect tense is, but I do know what I eaten for dinner tonight!</p>
<p>Prepositional phrases, including other phrases and clauses that function as elements within the prepositional phrase (for example, adjective clauses describing the object of the preposition), serve a single basic function. They either act as adjectives or as adverbs. So - “during the reign of Nero, the demented and destructive emperor of Rome who was murdered by his own guards after his many outrages against his people” - is all a prepositional phrase and acts as the adverb telling ‘when’ something happened. As in “A catastrophic fire destroyed much of Rome during the reign of Nero, etc.”</p>
<p>But I digress. Your logic is understandable, but you applied verb tense thinking to adverbial grammatical elements. Apples and oranges. Adverbs don’t distinguish tense.</p>
<p>(I hope this comment didn’t make things worse.)</p>
<p>Oh i get it…prep phrases in this case function adverbally…thanks for the clarification…</p>
<p>At the risk of complicating things further, there is one more thing I could add about verb tense and adverb functions. Both can tell when something happened. (Of course, adverbs can also specify where, how, or to what extent.) Verb tense tends to delineate an event in the context of past, present and future and various periods of extended duration, still in the context of past, present and future. Verb tense can be diagrammed on a time line with no other labels than the words ‘past’, ‘present’ and 'future" (as I’m sure you’ve seen done). Adverbs tend to define when something happened (or ‘was/is’ in the case of linking verbs) in relation to a calendar or clock or some other event. So you have “during April”. “during the game”, “during the spring”, during the reign of Nero", “during the midterm break”. (These are adverb prepositional phrases. The same is true of other adverbial modifiers whether they be single words, adverbial phrases or clauses.) </p>
<p>Of course, this won’t come up on the SAT.</p>
<p>At the risk of complicating things further, there is one more thing I could add about verb tense and adverb functions. Both can tell when something happened. (Of course, adverbs can also specify where, how, or to what extent.) Verb tense tends to delineate an event in the context of past, present and future and various periods of extended duration, still in the context of past, present and future. Verb tense can be diagrammed on a time line with no other labels than the words ‘past’, ‘present’ and 'future" (as I’m sure you’ve seen done). Adverbs tend to define when something happened (or ‘was/is’ in the case of linking verbs) in relation to a calendar or clock or some other event. So you have “during April”. “during the game”, “during the spring”, during the reign of Nero", "during the midterm break. (These are adverb prepositional phrases. The same is true of other adverbial modifiers whether they be single words, adverbial phrases or clauses. </p>
<p>Of course, this won’t come up on the SAT.</p>
<p>I see, but I am subscribed to the online course, for one of their questions, “during the last fifty years” was the reason why the tense was perfect present. But if I am reading your last post right, you say that adverbs make the verbs into was or is.</p>
<p>That wasn’t really my point. Adverbs don’t change the verb from action to linking, and they don’t change the tense. They only tell when,(and/or where, how and to what extent) about both action and linking verbs. Some examples:</p>
<p>G. scores points. (action verb, present tense, no adverb)
G usually scores points. (action verb, present tense, adverb telling when G scores points.)
G. scored points. (action verb, past tense, no adverb)
Yesterday G, scored points. (action verb, past tense, adverb telling when on the calendar G scored points.)
G scored points during the last game. (action verb, past tense, adverb phrase telling when G scored in (time) relation to an event.)</p>
<p>G is happy. (linking verb, present tense, no adverb)
G is usually happy. (linking verb, present tense, adverb telling when G is happy)</p>
<p>I think you can fill in the rest. Action / linking is one issue not related to time, either by tense or by adverb modification. That issue is whether you are describing something that happens (an event), or something that exists (that is) in a certain state. (“G. is happy” says “G exists in a happy state” Since the linking verb ‘is’ is present tense, G. is happy says G exists NOW in a happy state. “G. was happy” says that G existed SOMETIME IN THE PAST in a happy state.</p>
<p>I’m afraid I’m going into too much detail and am making things worse. If this isn’t helping you to understand tense, adverb modification, and action vs. linking verbs better, let me know.</p>
<p>Thank you, I do understand how adverbs change tense, its just that I know that “during the last fifty years” modifys the tense of the sentence, so it cannot be like a present tense. I do not understand why SAT said that the tense should be present perfect and not just past.</p>
<p>I re-read your last post and saw something that might be the source of confusion. You mention the online course stating the adverb phrase “during the last fifty years” was the reason why the tense was present perfect. Perhaps a more accurate interpretation would have been “during the last fifty years” is the information in the sentence that tells you that the tense should be present perfect. The phrase doesn’t CAUSE the tense to be present perfect; it’s just the context clue that is consistent with the idea of present perfect tense and tells you that the correct answer choice should be in present perfect tense. </p>
<p>Examples:</p>
<p>During the last fifty years, I had supported equal rights. (Event starts in the past -50 calender years ago - but ended before the present.) adverb phrase
I had always supported equal rights. (Event starts in the past - unspecified time ago- but ended before the present.) adverb
I had supported equal rights. (Event was true at some point in the past, but ended before the present.) no adverb</p>
<p>In all three cases, adverb or not, the tense remains the same. That’s because the time that the facts of the case occurred ( supporting and then ending support, both in the past) are the same. The adverbs don’t change the facts, they refine and focus and make the facts more understandable. Leave the adverbs out, and the facts of the event that the sentence reports (changing from supporting to not supporting) will remain the same. But with the adverbs included, the reader will have a more concrete understanding of those facts.</p>
<p>In the case of the SAT writing section, you know that ETS includes key words in the sentences (context clues) that tip you off to the information you need to answer the question. In the question you mentioned, the context clue was the phrase, “during the last fifty years”. It told you when the facts of the sentence occurred. Once you knew that, you knew what tense the correct answer should be written in.</p>
<p>P.S.
It is present perfect because it started in the past and continued to the present. Past would mean it started in the past and ended in the past (a single particular event). Without knowing the entire sentence, that would be my inference.</p>
<p>Alright thank you for all your help!</p>
<p>You’re welcome. I hope it really was help.</p>
<p>It was…just wondering for fun, is you are welcome a command? Because that would be weird as you are telling them what they are…</p>
<p>“You are welcome.” is declarative. It’s a statement of fact.</p>