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China flagNancy33Liu
A question about tense a: Look, somebody has cleaned the sofa. b: I ...... A. did it. B.have done that. I know A. is right. But I can't tell why B is not right. Can any body help me? Thanks in advance.

Answers · 7

1
The question 'expects' a simple past tense answer. You did the cleaning or you did not do it at some specific time in the past. So while present perfect (have done) is grammatically correct here, it is unnatural to the point of being incorrect. The initial question expects that you to reply that you cleaned the sofa (or not) at a specific instance. I did it THEN at some moment in time, or I did not do it THEN. Present perfect (have done) is a less precise in time. Present perfect here just says you did it over or within some broad undefined period of time. It is unnatural because the speaker expects a more precise answer.
0
B is not something a native speaker would normally use, but B is not technically wrong.
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Someone has cleaned the sofa. I have done that. - means that you have, at some point in the past cleaned the sofa. or a sofa, maybe. Not really an answer to the implied question.
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So if someone else says: Well, I have't done it. It is not technically wrong as well. But you don't use it .
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B is not something a native speaker would normally use but B is not technically wrong.

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