0

Neither Mr Tan nor his wife has been informed about the accident by the police.

Is it possible to replace ‘has been informed’ with ‘is informed’? Will the sentence has a different meaning?

Improve this question
2
  • 1
    Possible duplicate of Present perfect vs. present simple
    – Andrew
    Jan 31, 2018 at 16:42
  • No - are informed doesn't work in your context. There's nothing wrong with your have been informed - but for simplicity you might want to consider plain were informed, which is just as good (and easier! :)
    – FumbleFingers
    Jan 31, 2018 at 18:30

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
1

The answer to both of your questions is yes.

In the first case the sentence implies that as part of a continuing event (the accident and its aftermath) the police told the Tans about the accident.

In the second case the sentence could be an example of historic present, a form used sometimes by historians. "In 1952, the King dies. His daughter, who has now become Queen, is informed of his death by ..."

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .