Jeter's analysis

Derek Jeter on the Yankees' latest struggles:

"We didn’t hit, we haven’t hit, that’s why we’ve been losing. It’s nothing deeper than that.”

For my ESL students, this is an excellent example of the English verb tenses in action.

Jeter makes three statements.

1. "We didn't hit." (Past tense) Jeter is describing a definite time in the past, which is last night's game. The complete sentence might be "We didn't hit in last night's game."

2. "We haven't hit..." (Present perfect tense) Now Jeter is describing an event (in this case, the Yankees' collective failure to hit the baseball) that began in an unspecified time in the past, and that event continues into the present it is still true now. The complete idea might be "We haven't hit the ball well recently." This is different from "we didn't hit" because it is not limited to only last night. The failure to hit started before last night and it is still a problem now.

3. "That's why we've been losing." (Present perfect continuous) In this sentence the grammar functions in the same way as it does in the present perfect example (example #2). The losing began at an unspecified time in the past and continues up to now. It is still true today, because the Yankees haven't been hitting.

Great quote from Jeter. And a great example of the verb tenses in action.