Search results for 'tag:Present perfect tag:Stative verbs' matching tags 'Present perfect' and 'Stative verbs'

Re: until now+ present perfect

richard_s — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 10:49:56 GMT

This is pretty much correct. The second sentence is definitely fine. Actually, the 'until now' is redundant in the first sentence. Â Also, it might be more natural to use the perfect continuous in this sentence. Â Perfect continuous is used to show that an actionÂ continues until now, except with stative verbs and reporting verbs (such as 'consider' which was used in the original sentence). Â The present perfect usually has this meaning when it is combined with a time reference given by 'since' or 'for', but otherwise indicates a relationship between a past event and a present event.

(I hope that's not too confusing!)

Re: "I've been knowing him for years"?

Anonymous — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 11:45:12 GMT

2CalifJim:
What about 700 examples of "been knowing"? ;)

2Goodman:
The verb "to know" works perfectly well with the Perfect Continuous (Progressive) Tense. Yes, it is FORBIDDEN to be used in this tense, but that doesn't mean it does not work. It is not argued that the rule that forbids using the stative verbs in the Perfect Continuous, exists. What is argued is the rule itself. The Perfect Continuous is the most "continuous" of tenses. It is a continuity itself. So, why forbid the verbs which definitely are of durative character, from using them in a durative tense?

<< I started to know it two years ago...>> by the way, this looks completely grammatical but sounded really strange!
It's because the phrase itself is strange. It was used to show that the verb "to know" can be durative. If you can start doing something, then keep on doing it for some period of time, then quit doing it, that means that the action is durative. I definitely can start to know something (for example, "to know how to do the scuba-diving"), then keep on knowing it for some time, then forget it. That would mean that my "knowing" was durative. The same can be said about other stative verbs as well.

At the same time, when you use the Present Perfect to express the durative action which still lasts at the moment of speaking ("I have known him for two yearsÂ¨), you undermine the logical essence of the Present Perfect as a tense, which represents a finished action (hence past, not present), which is not durative, neither lasting (compare: "I have bought a car", "She has done it", "Mel Gibson has produced another movie", etc.).

Che

(This thing doesn't want to register me for some reason).

Re: Present Perfect (americans)

Diamondrg — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 07:40:10 GMT

Hi, YSchneider. I am not a native speaker and this is indeed a tough grammar point for non-native speakers.

Here is an extract from CGEL*:

Did you lock the front door? [5]

in a domestic situation where it is known that the front door is locked at bedtime every night. In that case, [5] is more or less equivalent to Did you
lock the front door at bedtime? (Incidentally, in [5], "the" in "the front door" is another case of situational definiteness; cfS.Uff.)

--

The ATTITUDINAL PAST, used with verbs expressing volition or mental state, reflects the tentative attitude of the speaker, rather than past time.
In the following pairs, both the present and past tenses refer to a present state of mind, but the latter is somewhat more polite:

Do/Did you want to see me now?
I wonder/wondered if you could help us.

--

Where did you put my purse ? [ 1 ]
Where have you put my purse? [2]

The purpose of both of these questions may be to find the purse; but in [1] the speaker seems to ask the addressee to remember a past action; while in [2] the speaker apparently concentrates on the purse's present whereabouts. There are many such cases.

--

Leaving aside such virtual equivalences, we may now focus on the difference between the two constructions, contrasting the meanings of the simple past given in 4.14 with the following meanings of the simple present perfective:

(a) STATE LEADING UP TO THE PRESENT

That house has been empty for ages.
Have you known my sister for long?

(b) INDEFINITE EVENT(S) IN A PERIOD LEADING UP TO THE PRESENT

Have you (ever) been to Florence?
All our children have had measles.

(c) HABIT (ie recurrent event) IN A PERIOD LEADING UP TO THE PRESENT

Mr Terry has sung in this choir ever since he was a boy.
The province has suffered from disastrous floods throughout its history.

Of these meanings, (a) corresponds to the 'state past' use of the simple past, but differs from it in specifying that the state continues at least up to the present moment (cf: That house was empty for ages - but now it's been sold); (b) corresponds to the 'event past', but differs from it in that the past time in question is indefinite rather than definite (cf: Did you go to Florence (last summer) ?); (c) corresponds to the 'habitual past', but, as with (a), the period identified must continue up to the present.

Note In AmE there is a tendency to use the past tense in preference to the present perfective, especially for the indefinite past; eg: Did you ever go to Florence ? (c/4.13 Note lb], 4.22 Note [a ]).

--

Have you seen the Javanese Art Exhibition? [yet]
Did you see the Javanese Art Exhibition? [when it was here]

The first of these implies that the Exhibition is still open; the second that the Exhibition has finished. From this concern with a period still existing at the present time, it is only a short step to the second implication often associated with the present perfective, viz that the event is recent. The simple present perfective is often used to report a piece of news:

_., , > the news? The president has resigned.

Because of this connotation of recency, B's reply in the following exchange must be considered absurdly inappropriate:

A: Has the postman left any letters? B: Yes, he did six months ago.

Since postmen in general deliver letters daily, the implicit time zone in this case would be no longer than a day.

[Note] In AmE, the simple past is often preferred to the present perfective for the variants of the indefinite past discussed in this section. Compare [6 ], for example, with Did the children come home yet? <esp AmE). Other AmE examples are: I just came back; You told me already; and without an adverb: /*m tired -1 had a long day.

* A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language (Quirk et al.]

Re: correct sentences 24/11

Teo — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 06:09:54 GMT

They won't smoke ever since they saw a film on lung cancer.

What does "won't" mean here?

Re: correct sentences 24/11

Teo — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 06:09:49 GMT

http://forums.eslcafe.com/student/viewtopic.php?t=22113&highlight=

Re: Tesnses

Ant_222 — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 23:03:09 GMT

«Tom is being a rich student. vs Tom will have been being a rich student. vs Tom will be being a rich student.»

As you should have read, the Present Continuous tense is used to express an on-going (active) process, that is happening at the moment of speech (the present).

But being a student is not a process at all. Intutively people perceive it as a state. Tom is a student. The car is white. Neither Tom nor the car are not doing anything to be a student and white accordingly. They just are so. Tom can sleep, eat, play The Dig! and still be a student. The car may stand in the garage or cruise across America, but it still will be white. There's no need in a certain _process_ for the car to remain white.

Of course, Tom should study well and the car should be taken care of, but those are processes are only supporting the corresponding states. If Tom stops to do homework he'll be expelled from his university, but it won't happen right at the moment he've decided to stop doing university tasks.

Same goes to the car: if its owner stops washing it and protecting against corrosion it'll take a considerable time for the car to get rusted all over and through, so it can no longer be called a white car.

That's why progressive tenses usually don't work with the so-called stative verbs.

But you can say:

1. Tom is a student â Now he is a student
2. Tom will be student (sometime in the future)
3. Tom was a student (when he was young)

About verbs expressing processes:

Let's take a very simple process â that of playing a game.

A process is not a state, some activity is required for the process to keep going on.

So, you can say: "I am playing a game now."
If tomorrow, say at 18:00 this process will be active, you can say: "Tomorrow at six I will be playing footbal with friends, so I will not be able (to be able â a state) to receive the parcel"

And if you say: "I play footbal" â you again express a state not a process. What state can that be? Only one â your state of being a regular footbal player. If you play footbal every Friday and Sunday, you can say on some Thursday evening: "I play footbal. And tommorow I'll be playing the final game for the cup of..."

But how to express that you became a student 3 years ago and are still a student?

"I have been a student for three years" â this Perfect tense syas that the action of your being a student began in the past (3 years ago) and is still not finished. It's called perfect because it considers a time interval up to now.

One year before you would say: "In a year I'll have been a student for three years." (Future Perfect)

And For years later you would say: "One year ago I had been a student for three years" (Past Perfect).

In the above sentences Past Pefrect expresses an unfinished (by some past moment) action, Future Perfect â an action that will be unfinished (but will have begun) at some moment in the future.

Now you can see that there's certain logic behind the names of tenses. The first word describes the time (Future, Present, Past), and the second reports the type of the action (Perfect â up to some moment, simple â a state, progressive â on-going process)

In addition to expressing states, Simple tenses are used to describe actions which are fully located in the past (Past Simple) or in the future (Future Simple):

"I will read you letter tomorrow"
"Yesterday I killed a fly"

There are also other usages of Past and Present Perfect, which you'll easily find well described in many books on grammar. I
explained only a few of them to see whether it helps at all.

P.S.: And beware, Tom: I am not an English teacher!

Re: Can't translate a sentence, help...

Ant_222 — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 22:44:57 GMT

Thanks for the feedback!

Tanit:

«"Women were not ready to encounter those forms of difficulties
they are actually facing now.»

Ok. They were not ready to encounter the difficulties. They are facing them now. But are they ready now? Your sentence tell nothing about that. Right? It only says they were not ready in the past...

«May I ask you to expand on the difference you pointed out? Why do you consider "prepared" as an adjective only when the verb is present?»

Because translating "aren't prepared" as a stative verb makes more sence than treating it like passive voice. Hope you agree on it.

However, in the original example it's seems vice versa (as Amy explained).

Yankee:

«People can also prepare themselves for things»

Yes, but using passive voice to point to yourself from without is kinda complicated to my mind. Isn't it like going to a neighbour through another city?

«I would say that "weren't prepared" is passive in the sentence and simply places the preparation (or lack thereof) in the past»

Ok, but I felt it somehow rendered the preparation obsolette (not actual at the current moment). Wouldn't Present Perfect work better?

«Does that help?»

Well, "the sky is gettin' clearer".

«Good point, Tanit. In this particular sentence, I guess it would probably best to say it's a borderline case whether you consider "weren't prepared" to be passive or simply the past tense of "be" followed by an adjective.»

But it must be a passive to make sense, right? If it's an adjective then "aren't" is required (as you said yourself). So, there's no dilemma of what it is (given we use the word "weren't").

Re: Can you say: near past + recent past weeks ??

Goodman — Mon, 26 Mar 2007 19:49:21 GMT

Liat,

Let's not "muddy" up the water on present perfect by starting another debate on "Mr." vs. "Mr". Event the experts have varying opinions. I understand that you have probably an image that my English is not quite native, which is ok. I take no offense. Debates are based on what you know and how you see about certain things which is the case here. Is there anything wrong with "debatable"?

Now back to the present perfect questions about using "ago" and "past time", The rule of thumb the Iâve learned is this:

Present perfect tense goes with âsinceâ and âforâ, much like a an elegant carriage goes with horses. Of course, we can put a couple of âdonkeysâ in front of the carriage, much like using âagoâ and âyesterday, or âpast few weeksâ with present perfect.

The carriage still moves along, but not very gracefully. Here is some write-ups about present prefect use with prepositional and time phrases. Perhaps it may be helpful for some.

http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/2527/presentperfect.html

Simple Past

1. The simple past is used to talk about completed actions in the past

2. The simple past is often used with expressions that refer to points of time in the past

4 o'clock/2.12/the end of year/Christmas

Tuesday/19th March/the 21st/New Year's Day

January/1999/the 1990s/summer

no prepositions

yesterday/yesterday morning/last Monday/next April/a few days ago/ the day before yesterday/when I was young

Present perfect simple

3. Present perfect is used to talk about a present situation which is a result of something that happened at an unspecified time in the past.
Therefore we do not use specific time expression such as yesterday, last week, etc.

8. Stative verbs + for and since

The present perfect simple is often used with for and since and stative verbs to talk about things that began in the past and have continued up to now.

I have known about the plans to spin off this service from the company. (And I know now.)

Re: million and millions

Tm123 — Mon, 29 Jan 2007 16:39:21 GMT

Look ,the book tell me that we can't use the left words with "for" and" since" in Present Perfect Tense.

we have arrived here for 5 years.(wrong)

we have been here for 5 years.(right)

we have borrowed the book for one week.(wrong)

we have kept the book for one week.(right)

Should I believe you or the book?

/arrive, come /begin, start/ buy/ die/ finish, end/ get up/ go out/join/ leave, move / borrow

the words above we call it "moment verb".It is not stative verb,so we can't put it before For & Since for Time.

If we want to say the same meaning,we must change them.

Like the undermentioned words:

arrive, comeâbe here, be in

begin, startâbe on

buyâhave

dieâbe dead

finish, endâbe over

get upâbe up

go outâbe out

joinâbe in,

leave, moveâbe away, be out of

borrowâkeep

Re: since I have written or wrote

Inchoateknowledge — Sun, 28 Jan 2007 20:46:14 GMT

Ant_222 wrote:
Yoong: do you think the following sentence is incorrect? Â«In 2002, Stricklin struggled mightily and was soon released. That was the last time he has driven a NASCAR race.Â»

The 3 chief uses of pp:

1 state present perfect

used with stative verb senses to refer to a state that began in the past and extends to the present and perhaps even further.

I have been learning English for four years.

2 the event present perfect

event(s) happened in a period leading up tho the present.
two subclasses:

a) recently happened

I have got a new pair of Nike air max 360 shoes.

b) some indefinite time in the past:

Have you seen my new shoes? (until this moment in the present?)
The implicit time frame leads up to the present

3 habitual pp

dynamic verb sense, events, happening many times, in the past and in the present.

I have been bed-ridden for four days

----------------------------------------------

"In 2002, Stricklin struggled mightily and was soon released. That was the last time he has driven a NASCAR race"

correct, provided there are chances he will race again -- 2b category

It has been a while since I first/last wrote anything here -- while = the period of time that has passed since the last/first writing --

It has been a while since I have been writing -- while = period of time in which I have put in posts in this forum.