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Usually, the present perfect is used once when there are two sentences and a conjunction word like:

  • The book came out yesterday, but I have already read it.
  • I have lived in the United States since I was a child.

Can I say?

I've just seen a lady who has just come out of the hospital.

I wanna emphasize that the lady went out of the hospital a few seconds ago and at the same time, I also saw here a few seconds ago.

The other possible meanings that I would like to exclude:

Maybe she came out of the hospital a long time ago and has been waiting in front of the main gate for a long time. And I've just seen her now.

2 Answers 2

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Yes, your sentence is fine and perfectly understandable.

But while there's nothing wrong with it, I'd say it's generally more common to use the present participle.

Compare these two:

I've just seen a lady who has just come out of the hospital.
I've just seen a lady coming out of the hospital.

Both versions are correct, but the second version uses fewer words.

In colloquial speech (if this is, perhaps, something we'd be saying to somebody on the phone), we tend to avoid additional verbs and relative pronouns if we can say the same thing without them.

Unless the action of leaving the hospital is one that takes a long time, the use of just in front of the first verb is all the emphasis that's needed to imply that the entire sequence of events has occurred only very recently.


Note that the emphasis of the sentence can change if the verb form is changed:

I've just seen a lady coming out of the hospital. [She wasn't in a hurry.]
I've just seen a lady come out of the hospital. [Its doors must be unlocked.]

In the first version, the present participle puts an emphasis on the action of the woman. But if the context of the narrative is talking about the status of the hospital itself (let's say it's a thriller and the narrator is somebody wondering if the hospital has been locked down yet), the second version is more a simple statement of fact about the situation itself rather than the woman.


Also note that the original version of the sentence could be used for intentional effect:

People say the place is haunted, and I have to agree. I've just seen a lady who has just come out of the hospital. She's trembling and pale as a ghost.

In this context, the repetition of just in front of this verb tense puts additional emphasis on the immediacy and mood of the situation.

Oddly, it's also possible for this to mean that you've seen this lady seconds ago, but she came out of the hospital an hour ago. Despite the second use of just, it can still be understood to not be as immediate a statement in terms of time as would be the other versions of the sentence. (The interpretation of just can be relative.)

So, both in terms of style and intention, the original version of the sentence might well be more effective than any of the other expressions. But if the immediate nature of both things is to be made explicit (without any ambiguity at all), and if further context doesn't relay that, I would use one of the rephrased versions.

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I can't comment on the grammar question, but may be there are a few other ways to say it.

  1. I just saw the lady come out of the hospital a moment ago.
  2. I saw her coming out of the hospital a few seconds ago. (This could also mean that you saw her coming out through the lobby but you got distracted and then did not see her right out of the gate, may be she went back in or disappeared)
  3. I saw the lady come out of the hospital a few seconds ago, just when I arrived here.
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  • so you mean that my sentence is wrong or not commonly used? Commented Jul 14, 2019 at 14:13
  • I am not saying its wrong, although I feel there is something off about it. I personally would not use "just" twice in a simple short sentence such as yours. And, I think it could be "I've just seen a lady who had just come out of the hospital." if you had to word it that way. But don't quote me on this, you should wait for more answers. As to if your version is commonly used, then the answer is no, at least not to me.
    – AIQ
    Commented Jul 14, 2019 at 18:04
  • What is the reason for the downvote?
    – AIQ
    Commented Jul 15, 2019 at 0:12
  • Hi, I'm not the one who down-voted your answer as I appreciate every answer :) Commented Jul 21, 2019 at 10:19

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