'They did' instead of 'They have'

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

Hi,
I have encountered the following dialogue in a book:

  • The airline seems to have lost my suitcases.
  • Oh, no! Have they explained what happened?
  • They did, eventually. I had to ask an official from another airline to help.

Please could you explain why ‘They did’ is used instead of ‘They have’? The Present Perfect is supposed to be more logical because the question was asked in the Present Perfect and the answer implies the final result.

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2

Hi Irina,
That’s a very sharp observation dear Irina. Clearly the writer is thinking of ‘happened’ rather than ‘explained’ but you are quite right. It should be ‘they have’ as it refers to ‘explained’. Well done!

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Thank you very much, Alan!

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