Perfect Time for the Perfect Tense

Of course, when it comes to learning any language, different people struggle with different things and what is easy for one person, will be simple for someone else.

But there are always certain aspects of a language that will be hard for everyone. Any foreigner I have spoken to who has had the pleasure of learning Polish will tell you that getting your head around the large number of inflections is a nightmare! Similarly, many Poles will find a language containing articles a challenge, as they are not used in their mother tongue.

But one thing that will baffle anyone learning English is the perfect tense. It’s hard enough for natives to master it proficiently, so my heart goes out to any foreigners trying to make sense of it.

My personal favourite English sentence is the one below:

John, while James had had had, had had had had. Had had had had a stronger effect on the teacher.

Try getting your head around that! Remember, Wikipedia is always there to help…