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  1. We have a problem with your latest delivery - it ARRIVED 3 days late again.

  2. We have a problem with your latest delivery - it HAS ARRIVED 3 days late again.

Which verb tense is correct?

Cardinal
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Lucy
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    Both are correct, but what do you want to imply? What is the context? – Cardinal Sep 28 '21 at 14:22
  • This is a sample text to practice customer complaints and my student asked me which tense was correct – Lucy Sep 28 '21 at 14:29
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    Because it's *your **latest** delivery* we can assume that the delivery was ***very recent***. That same emphasis on "recency" is also conveyed by *it **has** arrived* (where it's very likely that text was written *on the actual day of delivery*). The Simple Past *it arrived 3 days late* could be used even if the most recent delivery was days, weeks, or even longer ago. In short, the only difference is that Present Perfect ***has arrived*** implies ***arrived just recently***. – FumbleFingers Sep 28 '21 at 15:00
  • Another problem with both candidate sentences is that the deliveries are late *again* . It's somewhat awkward to say that *A* delivery was late *again.* Also, if it's "your delivery" then it didn't passively "arrive." Maybe you want some variation on "you were late again with your latest delivery." – puppetsock Sep 28 '21 at 18:48
  • @puppetsock "Your delivery was late again" is natural for me. It's understood that it's not the same delivery being late twice. – gotube Sep 29 '21 at 04:26

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