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.
Present perfect vs. present perfect continuous.
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ConfusedKi
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woodcutter
- Posts: 1303
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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?"
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"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?"
"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?"
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"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?"
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!
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!
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woodcutter
- Posts: 1303
- Joined: Sat Jun 19, 2004 6:14 am
- Location: London
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.
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.