the present perfect or past perfect

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Markchoi1992

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Joined
Feb 10, 2017
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Student or Learner
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Chinese
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Hong Kong
Current Location
Hong Kong
if i want to say last night we ate the dinner

can i say i have dinner

or i have had dinner ?

or i had had dinner

the use of tense is confusing me a lot

please tell me the more detailed information about those tenses
 
You used the most natural tense in your first line: the past simple.

Remember to start every sentence with a capital letter and end it with a period ("full stop " in British English), question mark, or exclamation mark. Don't put a space before the punctuation that ends a sentence.
 
Welcome to the forum, Markchoi.

We don't give tutorials on grammar topics which have already been extensively covered elsewhere. Click here and ask us again if you have any specific questions.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
GoesStation said:
You used the most natural tense in your first line: the past simple.

Remember to start every sentence with a capital letter and end it with a period ("full stop " in British English), question mark, or exclamation mark. Don't put a space before the punctuation that ends a sentence.
Click to expand...

but can i just say like ' i just have had dinner before' < does it sound more like what the natives speak?
 
That doesn't work.
 
Please remember to use a capital I and to start sentences with a capital letter.

I'm not hungry. I have just had/eaten my dinner.
 
GoesStation said:
Remember to start every sentence with a capital letter and end it with a period ("full stop " in British English), question mark, or exclamation mark.
Click to expand...

Markchoi1992 said:
But can I just say, for example, [STRIKE]like[/STRIKE] 'I just have had dinner before.' [STRIKE]<[/STRIKE] Does [STRIKE]it[/STRIKE] that sound more like what [STRIKE]the[/STRIKE] native[STRIKE]s[/STRIKE] speak​ers say?
Click to expand...

In addition to my advice quoted above, always capitalize the word "I". Never put a space after a quotation mark.
 
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