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Read each pair of sentences below, A and B. The sentence which follows each pair is related to one of the sentences in the pair. (For example, it could come after the sentence or describe the sentence.)

A. "My sister has a baby."
B "My sister's having a baby."

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Is B: My sister's having a baby, the only correct answer in this exercise to mean that the woman is pregnant?

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    You can't just copy and paste an image, images cannot be searched. Words, phrases etc. on images are not searchable either. Please, next time, make the smallest of efforts to write the question, and never forget to cite your source and include a link where possible
    – Mari-Lou A
    Commented Nov 27, 2020 at 12:08

2 Answers 2

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Yes.

A. "My sister has a baby." - This would mean your sister has given birth already(or adopted etc.) and her child is still a baby. She is no longer pregnant with the baby mentioned in the sentence.

B "My sister's having a baby." - This means your sister is pregnant. She will have a baby. Technically, it could also mean that she is in the middle of giving birth. But this would be very context specific and so rare that it would probably need to be specified explicity. Something like: "My sister is currently having a baby"

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My sister has a baby

indicates that she is the mother of a child that is under three years old. It does not necessarily imply that she was ever pregnant: the baby may have been adopted.

My sister is having a baby

indicates that she either is currently giving birth or is currently pregnant and expects to give birth.

Two different meanings of “have” are in play in these two sentences.

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