I've been writing / I've written.... any difference in politeness?

Hi people!

Today, one of my students asked me if there was any difference in the degree of politeness attached to these two sentences:

(Context: It is a working environment, and he's writing an e-mail to some colleagues who work for the same company, but in a subsidiary in another country. He has written a lot of e-mails to them but hasn't received any response yet.)

1. Since I've written several mails to you and haven't got any response, I'd like to know whether there is something going wrong. (Present Perfect Simple)

2. Since I've been writing to you all day and haven't got any response, I'd like to know... (Present Perfect Continuous)

I think it would be impolite to mention the number of mails you've written so far, e.g:: Since I've written X e-mails so far, but got no response, I'd like to know...

Anyway, I think his question was aimed at the fact that when PPS is used, the focus of our attention is on the "present result" and when PPC is used, the focus turns to the action being performed.

My question is whether the Present Perfect Simple or Continuous carry any degree of politeness

Is there a better or more polite way to say this?

Thanks a lot!

Mara.

Hi,

.... whether there is something going wrong ....

Just a small additional comment on the other part of your sentence. Better and more normal would be whether there is something wrong. (IE omit 'going')

Furthermore, in my own business experience, 'wrong' is a word that tends not to be used in this general kind of way. Perhaps it's because it's a word that has personal overtones. It's OK to use it in regard to systems, procedures, that kind of thing, but a bit trickier when people and their competence are involved.

I'd say something like ....whether there is a problem of some kind .....

Best wishes, Clive

Hello Mara

I know there is some difference in the degree of politeness between the simple and the progressive tenses about some verbs. Examples are between <I hope that ..> and <I'm hoping that …> or between "I wonder if …> and <I'm wondering if …>. And I also learned the future progressive tense sounds more polite than the simple future tense. Examples are "When will you finish this work?" (a wife to her husband) and "When will you be cooking dinner?" (a husband to his wife). But as far as I have learned, there is not a difference in politeness between the simple present perfect and the present perfect progressive and the choice of them depends mostly on whether the speaker wants to emphasize the fact the action that began to happen in the past is still continuing.