Taking advantage of the fuss about the Present Perfect; given this sentence:
(1) It has been three years that I don't see my father.
(2) It has been three years that I last saw my father.
Is that ever possible to utter the first sentence? I mean, in Portuguese one combines the perfect aspect with the present simple to mean the second sentence, so I see lots of students write sentences like (1).
Another thing, given:
(3) I have lived here for ten years .
(4) I live here for ten years.
What kind of impact has (4) on native ears? I know that it's quite common romance speakers utter sentences like (4), but how do you react to it? Is this the kind of deviation like more big or it's a serious deviation for a native speaker?
I hope I have been clear in my enquiries.
José
Present Perfect and Present simple
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Metamorfose
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Re: Present Perfect and Present simple
Actually, I can't use either one of them. I would prefer:Metamorfose wrote:Taking advantage of the fuss about the Present Perfect; given this sentence:
(1) It has been three years that I don't see my father.
(2) It has been three years that I last saw my father.
It has been three years since I last saw my father.
or, I haven't seen my father for three years.
Ouch. It hurts(3) I have lived here for ten years .
(4) I live here for ten years.
What kind of impact has (4) on native ears?
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LarryLatham
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