Present perfect vs. present perfect continuous.

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ConfusedKi
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Present perfect vs. present perfect continuous.

Post by ConfusedKi » Mon Oct 27, 2008 6:33 am

Hello all,

I am plagued by a question that I've yet to find a concrete solution for, even after a couple of hours of consultion with a few grammar bibles. Allow me to explain.

"I'm so tired, I______ all day."

The two possible answers given are: "'ve studied" and "'ve been studying". Instinctively, I'd said the latter but now I'm worried that I cannot provide a good enough explanation to my students as to why. Can anyone please shed some light on this issue?

Many thanks in advance.

woodcutter
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Post by woodcutter » Mon Oct 27, 2008 6:50 am

The first answer isn't "wrong" to my mind, but the second answer is a classic instance of how we use the present perfect continuous, talking about an activity that we have been doing from a stated point in the past (or with a concrete measure of time) until now, so that feels more natural.

Macavity
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Post by Macavity » Mon Oct 27, 2008 7:28 am

I think the sentence could be read as implying that an activity has recently ended and this is somewhere that we often encounter PPC.

"Are you all right? You look awful!"

"I've been sitting in a meeting all afternoon"

"Don't tell me - Jones and his budget. Am I right?"

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

"Ring-ring, ring-ring"

"Hello? Oh, hi mum. Listen, can I call you back? It's been raining all morning and I was just going to pop to the shops before it starts again. I'll call you back later, OK?"

lolwhites
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Post by lolwhites » Mon Oct 27, 2008 7:45 am

Both are possible, the difference is one of emphasis. The second emphasises the durative nature of the action; it mentally places the speaker and listener "inside" the action, so to speak.

An example I give students is to analyse these four:
I've cut some sticks.
I've been cutting some sticks.
I've cut my finger.
I've been cutting my finger


Even though it's the same verb, only the last one sounds weird. I don't usually need to explain why, miming a sawing action on my own finger usually does the trick!

woodcutter
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Post by woodcutter » Mon Oct 27, 2008 11:28 pm

Yes, that's more to the point than my answer I guess, but the examples you gave don't have given times, so it's a bit of a cop out.

If times are mentioned then it is sometimes hard to see why we would not be more concerned with the durative nature, but one thing that does emphasize it is if you have a negative result like "I'm tired" - in that case you certainly want to talk about the long effort.

That's why "I've worked all day - I'm so tired" sounds a bit better than the other way round, I think, because you don't know that that kind of negative result is coming when the sentence starts.

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