It blew my mind working at a computer programming job some years ago when my college-graduate colleague sitting nearby said to me, "They should have ran that job last night."
How can you get our of elementary school, let alone college, using this kind of grammar? Had he been such a bad kid that teachers just wanted to get rid of him?
What's wrong with 'should have ran'? English verbs have different forms corresponding to the time period you're speaking about, like past, present and future tense, for example.
1. Is something happening right now? Then you need to use the present tense of the verb: 'I RUN this job every day.'
2. Did something happen in the past? Then you need to use the past tense of the verb: 'I RAN this job yesterday.'
3. Did it happen in the past but also has consequences now, in the present? Then you use a tense called 'present perfect'. The name may sound unfamiliar but you use sentences like this every day. 'I HAVE RUN this job every day for the past month and it always works.'
'Have run' is the way you make the present perfect tense, by putting the helping verb 'have' in front of the 'acting' verb. See how the example sentence refers to past events that are relevant to right now, in the present? The computer job worked a month ago and is still working now.
There are other helping verbs, too, like 'do' and 'will' that act the same way 'have' does.
Each of our three examples uses a different tense of the verb: example 1: present tense, example 2: past tense, example 3: present perfect tense.
Some verbs change the vowel when the tense changes; For example, the verb 'drink'.
1. Present tense uses 'drink'.
2. Past tense uses 'drank'.
3. Present perfect uses 'drunk'.
The vowel changed from 'i' to 'a' to 'u'.
But some verbs do not change the vowel to indicate the tense; that's where some confusion lies. The verb 'run' is an example of one of these:
1. Present tense is 'run'.
2. Past tense is 'ran'.
3. Present perfect tense is 'run'.
Present and present perfect tenses have the same form: 'run'. How do you tell them apart? By the use of a helping verb. Remember the example sentence above for the present perfect tense, 'I have run this job every day for the past month and it always works.'? In correct grammar you can NEVER use a helping verb with the past tense form of a verb, like my college-educated, erstwhile colleague did.
Even thought the verb 'run' kept using the vowel 'u' in both the present tense and the present perfect tense, using a helping 'verb' lets you know you're using the present perfect tense. This is why saying 'I have RAN this before' is incorrect.
This is also why saying, 'I have drank this before.' is also wrong. And saying 'have drank' is so obviously, terribly wrong because the verb's changed form is screaming at you, "I've changed my vowel for you! Don't abuse me!
This is grade school stuff. Blame it on your parents if it makes you feel better.
Please. I can't take it anymore!
[Some linguists, from an historical point of view, denote verbs that change vowels to three different forms like 'drink', to be 'regular' verbs and verbs like 'run' to be 'irregular'. Other linguists claim just the opposite, citing a more 'contemporary' point of view. Thanks a lot!]
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