[title]Family quotes[/title] [description]Welcome to our family quotes section! Here you'll find some of the funniest (and wisest) quotes on the subject of family life![/description]
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Latest post Tue, Oct 27 2009 12:20 AM by B.J. 9 replies.
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B.J  +  953861 Mon, 26 Oct 09 08:08 PM
I don't understand the differece.

 

I heve been cheking my e-mail.

I am cheking my e-mail.

 

What kind of situation I can use these sentenses?

B.J
Joined on Mon, Oct 26 2009
New Member 20
Cool Breeze  +  953899 Mon, 26 Oct 09 09:19 PM
I have been checking my e-mail regularly for two months now.

The action began two months ago and is probably still going on.


I am checking my e-mail regularly now.

There's no mention when the checking began but the sentence suggests that there was a time when you didn't use to do that.


CB

Joined on Fri, Apr 7 2006
Senior Member 3,978
"I hope you'll all live to be 150 years old - and the last voice you hear is mine!" Frank Sinatra on stage in Oslo, Norway, 28 September 1991
B.J  +  953911 Mon, 26 Oct 09 09:38 PM
I am checking my e-mail regularly now. 

So this sentence means, for example, "Everyday after lunch, I check my e-mail." my understanding is ok? 

 

 

B.J
Cool Breeze  +  953922 Mon, 26 Oct 09 09:51 PM
B.J
“"Every day after lunch, I check my e-mail”

Please look up the word regularly in your dictionary. You may chack your e-mail every day, every two days or even every week. If you do that, you do it regularly.


If you don't want to give the impression that you didn't use to check it, just say: I check my e-mail regularly. The simple present tense usually indicates habitual action.


CB

B.J  +  953935 Mon, 26 Oct 09 10:16 PM
So...for example, I got a new job this spring and began to use e-mail.

And then "Recently I am cheaking my e-mail."

Do you say that way?

B.J
dimsumexpress  +  953945 Mon, 26 Oct 09 10:27 PM
B.J

I am cheking my e-mail.

This says: I am at this minute logging in to check if my boss has sent me any email

 

B.J
“I heve been checking my e-mail”
 

 

The present perfect signifies that the act of checking has started from a point in time passed which by rule can not be denoted by past time markers such as yesterday, last week, a year ago etc. ,and still held true.

 

I have been studying English for a while - meets the rule requirments; and so does "I heve been checking my e-mail".

Joined on Mon, Oct 12 2009
Full Member 284
dimsumexpress  +  953971 Mon, 26 Oct 09 10:59 PM
One extra point I want to make which is when you add the adverb "regularly" to the sentence, it will skew the meaning which was intended. Consider this:

 

A- I sent you an email earlier, did you get it?

B- I am checking my e-mail? ----He is logging in to check (now), as I explained in my last post.

If "regularly" is thrown into the sentnce, then it has a slight resemblance to present perfect which means "yes, I have been checking.." .

"I am checking my email regularly but I didn't see your email in my In Box" this is a perfectly good sentence. However,to avoid this cross-tense confusion, I would perosnally choose to avoid sing "adverbs of frequency" like often, usually, and regularly in present progressive sentence.

 

Example: He usually drinks a glass of warm milk before going to bed. Correct

 

             He is usually drinking a glass of warm milk.....    Not a good sentence.

We also have to evaluate the contexts. Sometimes the rules seem to bent, but they still work.

 

i.e. He sees his doctor regularly. - Fine

     He was seeing his doctor and getting check-up regularly. How could he pass away so suddenly?

In contrast with the "warm milk" sentence, the progress sentence worked fine with "regularly".

 

             

 

 

B.J  +  953995 Mon, 26 Oct 09 11:39 PM
"yes, I have been checking.." .

"I am checking my email regularly but I didn't see your email in my In Box" this is a perfectly good sentence.

 

So you think that

"I have been checking my email regularly but I didn't see your email in my In Box" and "I am checking my email regularly but I didn't see your email in my In Box"  are same meaning.

 

 

B.J
dimsumexpress  +  954018 Tue, 27 Oct 09 12:10 AM
Others may disagree because of the mixed tense but I would say "yes" at least to my ears in this context.

 

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