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  1. She has stayed at her uncle's house since she was ill.

  2. It is six years since I was in Seattle.

For sentence 1, does it imply that after her illness was cured, she has stayed at her uncle's house? Or it should be literally understood?

For sentence 2, does it imply that it has been 6 years since I left Seattle, which means the lapse between the moment that I left Seattle and present is 6 years?

Also, if I understand sentence 1 correctly, here is another sentence,

  1. I haven't seen him since he lived in Boston.

Does this mean I haven't seen him since he left Boston?

Thank you in advance!!

2 Answers 2

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She has stayed at her uncle's house since she was ill.

This probably means that she started living in her uncles house when she became ill, and has remained there ever since. But it could possibly mean that she started living there when she stopped being ill. The second meaning is not likely.

It is six years since I was in Seattle.

This means that the speaker was in Seattle six years ago (perhaps not exactly) and has not been there since. It suggests but does not say that the speaker either had visited Seattle on several occasions, or lived there for some time.

I haven't seen him since he lived in Boston.

This means that the speaker last met the other person when that person lived in Boston. It implies that the other person no longer lives there. It does not say if the most recent meeting was quite near the time when the other person stopped living in Boston, but implies that the most recent meeting was at least not too long before the other person stopped living in Boston.

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1) No, it does not tell if she was cured or not, just that she is still staying there.
2) It just says that from the day you were in Seattle till today, it has been 6 years.
3) No, it just means that since he lived there. Nothing tells if he has left or not.

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    I would tend to disagree. The past tense in "since she was ill" implies she is no longer ill. The present perfect implies that she is still living, together that implies she got better. Similar reasoning applies to 3.
    – James K
    Commented Mar 22, 2019 at 7:13
  • @JamesK No, the past tense simply tells that she got ill in the past. Being cured is not hinted anywhere here.
    – Bella Swan
    Commented Mar 22, 2019 at 7:15

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