What's the difference between these 2 sentences (tenses)?

- Previous students have had nothing but praise for the course content and staff.
- Previous students had nothing but praise for the course content and staff.

Thank you! :)

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isthmus_x

28 June

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English (UK)
English (US)

@VictoriaY

You don’t need to add any qualifying remarks to a statement in present perfect. The sense of ongoing time is the entire point. If you have something else to say you can add it, but it is not required.

Do you really think that people don’t improve if they feel great about what they do? That sounds very harsh. It’s my experience that people tend to do worse if they are made to feel bad.

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isthmus_x

28 June

English (UK)
English (US)

@VictoriaY

The first one is the present perfect tense – an action from the past is described as still influencing the present

The second is the past simple tense – an action from the past is described. We don’t know whether it’s influence is ongoing.

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VictoriaY

28 June

Simplified Chinese (China)

@isthmus_x

Appreciate it!😆😆

I was curious about in what circumstances we use the first one? Like this:?

- Previous students have had nothing but praise for the course content and staff, which leads to teachers feeling great about their teaching and not improving.

I'm just not sure the necessity for using the present perfect tense (have had). I think maybe "had" is enough.🤣🤣

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isthmus_x

28 June

English (UK)
English (US)

@VictoriaY

You don’t need to add any qualifying remarks to a statement in present perfect. The sense of ongoing time is the entire point. If you have something else to say you can add it, but it is not required.

Do you really think that people don’t improve if they feel great about what they do? That sounds very harsh. It’s my experience that people tend to do worse if they are made to feel bad.

See a translation

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VictoriaY

28 June

Simplified Chinese (China)

@isthmus_x

I see! Thanks a lot!🥳🥳

I'd like to qualify what I meant🤣: I meant, if people feel great about what they have done, or something, they might not go the extra mile to go beyond and make progress.

Let's say, Tom is quite satisfied with his current English proficiency and he didn't recognize there was a lot of room for improvement. Thus his English might stagnate or get worse over time.

Or, Amy think her appearance is ok, so she might not change her look by haircut, makeup, outfit... Therefore her appearance would not be better.

Maybe I picked inappropriate examples but that's what I meant.🤣🤣I hope What I wrote is clear.🤣

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