sundar
I just returned from attending an interview in a nearby computer institute where the head, wanted to test my knowledge and my proficiency in English. Although I could not come up with a word which represents a present perfect tense immediately, at my request, she was kind enough to supply me with one as an example. The word "reached", "as in I have just reached", she said, to which I responded in acknowledgement "As in I have arrived", and she immediately corrected me, "Arrive and depart" are used in connection with inanimate objects like, "The plane has arrived". Though I could not get myself to contradict her, but if a person has just recently died , we say "He has departed", if not in fact, "He is departed", to respectfully mean, he has left his earthly body. The dead inanimate body has certainly not gone anywhere, and the inflexion of the word "depart" only refers to the word "He" and if it has been a while since he has died we say, "He is late" or "He is no more", or "He is deceased" or "He has expired", which are all respectful ways of communicating the passing away of a person and there is always an expiry date on all inanimate off the shelf edible products. Despite wanting to restrain myself, I was enraged, and I could not help but have an altercation with her, and vent out , "Neither is what we know really nothing, nor is what we know really everything. True knowledge begets humility , never pride", and bolted in a huff. I wont be landing that job, for sure.