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simple-simple
22 apr 2021

  • Coreano
  • Inglese (Regno Unito)
  • Inglese (Stati Uniti)
Domande Inglese (Regno Unito)

Come si dice in Inglese (Regno Unito)? When you say "The cat jumps on the table", which do you mean?

1. The cat is already on the table and jumps on it.
2. The cat was on the floor, and it jumps up to the table.
3. Or it can mean both

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Qisthina
22 apr 2021

  • Inglese (Regno Unito)


"The cat jumps on the table." can mean both. However, we usually use the phrase to express [2] as we rarely see cats jumping on tables [1].

Also, the correct tense to use would be past tense. So the sentence would be "The cat jumped on the table." This is because when you are explaining the situation, the cat would have already jumped, making it past tense.

sarahpandabusiness
22 apr 2021

  • Inglese (Regno Unito)

@simple-simple There are tenses in English, which you need to take into consideration. The sentence you mentioned is in the Present Simple tense "jump". We use the Present Simple tense for GENERAL statements and actions. If you say it that way, we assume the cat jumps on the table every day, every month...something is missing, you must add a time otherwise it even means 'always'. "I go there every day" - Present Simple, because it's general - > every day.

Take care of verb conjugations. In your sentence the Present Continuous tense would work. "The cat is jumping on the table", meaning RIGHT NOW, in this exact moment, she is jumping on the table. We are seeing the action of her actually jumping. verb -ing = action at an exact point in time. Examples: "Yesterday I was going there at 5 p.m". -> at exactly 5 p.m, a given point in time.

There is the Present Perfect tense as well. We use it when things just have happened recently. This tense would work best with your example. "The cat has just jumped on the table!", meaning RIGHT NOW SHE ALREADY IS ON THE TABLE WHEN WE SEE HER, SO SHE JUMPED BEFORE WE LOOKED, RECENTLY.

There is the Past Simple tense. "The cat jumped on the table", meaning a fact, statement, which describes an action that is completely over now. You can of course also say "The cat jumped on the table", for example when telling a story.

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Chillaxx
22 apr 2021

  • Inglese (Stati Uniti)
  • Inglese (Regno Unito)
  • Coreano Quasi esperto

It is closer to scenario 1, but 1 can be better described as “the cat is jumping on the table”.

To avoid confusion, you can say “the cat jumps *onto the table” to emphasise the scenario described in 2.

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Qisthina
23 apr 2021

  • Inglese (Regno Unito)

@simple-simple You're welcome! If you can please help me out with Korean as well😣

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Come si dice in Inglese (Regno Unito)? When you say "The cat jumps on the table", which do you mean? 1. The cat is already on the table and jumps on it. 2. The cat was on the floor, and it jumps up to the table. 3. Or it can mean both
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