Dear native speakers,

what is the difference between these two sentences (without any additional context given )when You hear them:

She has broken her leg at school.
She broke her leg.

matchaj - 19 February 2009 02:05 PM

Dear native speakers,

what is the difference between these two sentences (without any additional context given )when You hear them:

She has broken her leg at school.
She broke her leg.

well, I’m not a native speaker but I’m quite familiar with the standard grammar;
it doesn’t have a tangible difference, wot I can tell u is:
Present Perfect is sometimes used to refer to a past action which has an effect on present time
But when u use past tense it totally refers to sth which happened in the past n there might not be any effect of that in present time.
—
besides, the most important difference between present perfect n past is:
In prsent perfect tenses the time of the actions are not important while in Past tenses it is not like that

thanks,

but which sentence would be more appropriate in the following hypothetical situation- ( my sisters’s leg is broken )

She has broken her leg at school.
She broke her leg at school

Correct: She broke her leg at school.
        She has broken her leg before.
        NOT: She has broken her leg at school.

thanks,
if I understand well I shouldn’t say ” She has broken her leg at school” because I express in this sentence some kind of a detailed information (place where it happened)

am I right?

Not particularly. Where it happened is irrelevant.  What is incorrect is the verb. All that is needed is SHE BROKE HER LEG.
“Has broken” indicates prior to the present time.
She broke her leg at school.
She has broken her leg before, (at school or elsewhere).
She had broken it prior to this break (at school or elsewhere).

I break (Today)
I broke (yesterday)(Last week)(last year,etc.)
I have broken (before, many times)

S/He breaks (now, today, current time)
S/He broke (earlier today, yesterday, last week, last year, etc.)
S/He has broken (before, often, many times, etc.)
S/he had broken (prior to this break, etc.)

What you are dealing with is called the TENSE or TIME of the verb: present, past, etc.