Present perfect vs. present perfect progressive

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Teo  #486634  Sun, 09 Mar 08 12:00 PM

1. You have told him about the car accident.

2. You have been telling him about the car accident.

What's the difference in meaning between the above two sentences?

  
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Thank you very much for your reply.
Anonymous  #486639  Sun, 09 Mar 08 12:11 PM
Well, if you have told him, then you have completed that action and presumably he now knows about it.

But if you have been telling him, then that might imply that you have not finished telling him; you are still in the middle of telling him, and there is still more of the story to be told.

 

  
Yankee  #486648  Sun, 09 Mar 08 12:36 PM
Sentence 1 refers to a finished action and may have happened further in the past than sentence 2.

Sentence 2 may or may not be completed, and suggests that the 'telling' has continued right up to now.

 

  
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