<p>How do you know when to use the word "have"? Like in the sentence "You * have* made my job easier", or is it "you made my job easier"? What's the difference? Or it doesn't matter?</p>
<p>In Latin, the simple past tense can be translated as, i.e., “We ran” or “We have run”; I would assume that the same rule would apply in English. </p>
<p>Personally, with your example in mind, I would take “You have made my job easier” to mean that your job is <em>still</em> easier as a result of the person’s help, whereas “You made my job easier” seems to suggest that it was a one-time/past thing and no longer applicable. But that’s just how I would take it.</p>
<p>Thanks a lot. I’m also in Latin and that’s why I was a little confused over this thing in English.</p>
<p>When you use “have” it turns the verb into the perfect tense, which means that it is an ongoing action. If you say “have made,” that means it is ongoing into the present, and if you say “had made” that means it was ongoing in the past but now it has stopped. Without the “have” it can be assumed that the verb was a one time action.</p>
<p>“You made my job easier.” Means you made my job easier by doing one thing, sometime in the past. Doing only one thing doesn’t really make sense here.
“You had made my job easier.” Means you did some things to make it easier in the past, and it was ongoing but now it is stopped. Implies that my job is now hard again.
“You have made my job easier.” You have done several things to make my job easier. This seems the best choice of words to me.</p>