One change you can describe
Describe the clouded change you could reconstruct. One sentence. Your teacher is writing down the tense you use.
One change, four sentences
The same wall, four ways
a. We changed the wall.
b. The wall has been relocated.
c. The wall was relocated on 14 December 2023.
d. The wall, which has been relocated, is shown on Sheet L5, Delta 2.
Only one of those belongs in a response letter. All four are correct English, and three of them lose something a reviewer needs.
What each one loses. (a) names you as the agent, which no reviewer asked about, and gives no result. (b) is right but floating — changed relative to what, and where do I look? (c) is a log sentence: a dated event, filed. (d) does the whole job — result standing now, plus a locator.
Present perfect, past simple, and the date that decides
Which tense, and why
| Use | Tense | Example |
|---|---|---|
| The action you took, result standing now | present perfect passive | The table has been revised. |
| A dated event in the project history | past simple | The set was reissued on 14 December 2023. |
| Something still not done | present perfect + not yet | The survey has not yet been received. |
| A state resulting from the change | present simple passive | The revised wall is shown on Sheet L5. |
The rule that decides every case. A stated point in past time forces the past simple. You cannot say has been relocated on 14 December — the moment you name the day, the event is finished and located in the past, and the present perfect has nowhere to stand.
So the two tenses divide the letter cleanly:
- Present perfect for what you did in response to this comment. No dates — the reviewer does not care which afternoon.
- Past simple for the project history you are citing as background. Dates, because that is the point of citing it.
The Portuguese pull, and it is a strong one. Portuguese has a compound past that looks like the English present perfect and does not mean the same thing: tenho revisado means “I have been revising, repeatedly, and still am” — an iterative, not a result. So for a single finished action with a present result, Portuguese uses the simple past (revisei), and Brazilian speakers carry that straight into English:
I revised the table, it is on L2. → The table has been revised and is shown on L2.
This is not a small stylistic point in a response letter. The past simple reports an event; the present perfect asserts a current state. The reviewer is asking about the current state of the drawing, so the present perfect is the tense that actually answers them.
The verbs a response letter runs on
Present perfect passive, every one. Listen and repeat.
Choose the tense
Complete the response paragraph. One word per gap.
Comment 2 is noted. The rear retaining wall has been to clear the rear setback, and its height been reduced. The revised wall is shown on Sheet L5, clouded and marked Delta 2. The original design issued on 14 December 2023, before the boundary survey received. No other sheet been affected.
Each sentence has one tense error. Rewrite it as it should appear in a response letter.
1. The wall has been relocated on 14 December 2023.
2. We have revised the table last week and resubmitted the set.
3. The impervious surface table is revised and now shows the turf separately.
4. Sheet L5 has been update to show the revised wall.
5. The boundary survey has been received two weeks ago.
Report five changes
Task card
Your teacher has the Silverwood set and cannot see your clouds
Report five clouded changes aloud, each in one sentence, each with a locator.
- Present perfect for the change, present simple for where it now appears.
- No dates unless the date is part of the point.
- Your teacher will ask “when?” at least once. Watch what happens to your tense when you answer.
Where did the tense slip?
You almost certainly slipped after the “when?” question. That is normal and it is fixable: the date belongs in one clause, and the next sentence goes back to the present perfect. Say those two sentences again, in order.
Before the next lesson
Homework. Read your own general notes on Sheet L0. Find the sentence a plan checker could use against you. Bring the exact wording.