Timeline for He has become a criminal and he has been a criminal
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
8 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Jan 29, 2023 at 19:58 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | e.g. When I first met John last year, I knew that he had been a criminal. But he assured me that was all in the past, and that he was now "going straight". Note that now in that example refers to the time in the past when I first met John, not the time when I was saying / writing that text. | |
| Jan 29, 2023 at 19:47 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | You're completely mistaken. The only reason for using Past Perfect is if you're in some kind of "narrative" context where the temporal focus of the narrative is already in the past (and you're referring to something earlier than that). In a current conversation talking about John today, you might use Present Perfect to underline that he was, but is no longer a criminal - but learners would usually do better sticking to Simple Past John was a criminal [but he's an honest man now]. | |
| Jan 29, 2023 at 19:15 | comment | added | Dhawan Gayash |
@FumbleFingers I'm interested in the implication part of this sentence. John has been a criminal. AND John had been a criminal. I was under the notion that John had been would strongly imply that John is no longer a criminal. However, John has been could go either way. Would this be a fair assessment? Your thought, Please.
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| Jan 28, 2023 at 19:58 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | Also note that in "real" (spoken) language, (uncontracted) We have been friends but we're enemies now would almost always be delivered with heavy stress on either or both of have and been (or feasibly heavy stress on both friends and enemies). | |
| Jan 28, 2023 at 19:12 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | @SahilLaskar: No. "We've been friends" just implies the speaker isn't a native Anglophone! We'd only use that sequence of words if it continued... We've been friends since childhood, as per my example #3 | |
| Jan 28, 2023 at 19:05 | comment | added | MarcInManhattan | Yes, and as an example for your #2: "John has been a criminal, a vagabond, and a snake-oil salesman, but he is now a well-respected congressman." (Let's assume that "congressman" is mutually exclusive with those other three occupations...) | |
| Jan 28, 2023 at 18:57 | comment | added | Sahil Laskar | "We've been friends" implies we're no longer friends and "We've been friends for 10 years" implies we're still friends. Right? | |
| Jan 28, 2023 at 18:30 | history | answered | FumbleFingers | CC BY-SA 4.0 |