Questions tagged [perfect-constructions]
Perfect constructions employ a form of HAVE as an auxiliary and the past participle of a lexical verb to express past events as a current state.
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WOULD+Present Perfect
Could you please explain why Modal + Present Perfect is used here. It's usually used to express regret, but I can see none in this example.
Personal computers first made their appearance in the home ...
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I picked up the letter that was lying on the floor. Does it sound all right?
Here's my context:
I entered the room and I saw a big heap of letters on the desk. One of them had fallen on the floor. I picked up the letter lying on
the floor. / I picked up the letter that was ...
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Continuous tense or past tense
Please consider the following.
The gangsters have robbed three banks this year. They are not in this city. How (did they carry the money) or (are they carrying the money)?
Which one is better? Thanks ...
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Future Perfect Continuous
Tell me please, if it is okay to use the future PC tense without a time span, like this?:
"I will have been waiting for him when he finishes with his business."
"Will you have been ...
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Having injured or Injuring
A remote-controlled bomb exploded outside a hotel near the town square yesterday, _ at least 12 people.
A having been injured
B having injured
C injured
D injuring
I think D is correct, but somebody ...
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I would like to know more how present perfect tense and it's derivatives are in passive & active form; thus some concerns are waving over my mind?
Firstly;
Present perfect- has recreated
In each of these movies, batman has been recreated as the subconscious mind of American society.
Is this sentence a proper passive and still present perfect, ...
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perfect infinitive mode
I have the task to change sentences to use the perfect infinitive. For example:
I wish I were in Madagascar. → I would like to have been in Madagascar
How do I rephrase the sentences below using ...
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<will do/ will have done>... by
There are these two constructions:
will do... by...
will have done... by...
I want to make sure I understand the difference, if any, between these them correctly and came up with these questions.
...
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Can I use "how long" without a continuous tense?
How long have I slept?
Can I say that just before waking up? I think so.
The problem is that "how long" implies a continuous tense in most cases. In this case you can't use with a ...
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What is the appropriate use of the modal 'Could' in this example?
(Question moved from English Language & Usage.)
I was writing a passage of dialogue wherein one of the characters reflects on their ability to not do something in the past. See a similar example ...
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Is there any difference in meaning between "could it possibly be that..." and "could it have possibly been that..."?
Would you tell me if there is any difference in meaning between could it possibly be that... and could it have possibly been that...? For example:
I didn't see you much last week. Could it possibly ...
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Come to a place for some time [duplicate]
He came to New York for two weeks.
He has come to New York for two weeks.
Can they express the idea that he has come to New York and he plans to stay for two weeks， without mentioning how much of ...
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Is it possible to emphasise Perfect tenses?
I'm wondering if I could emphasise any sentences in the perfect tense form like when people emphasise the present and the past tenses.
I mean to say, I see a lot of expressions like these:
I do ...
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Correct use of "have been" [closed]
Would it be correct to say
"Since I have been reading this book, I have been learning so much"
or
"Since I have been reading this book, I have learned so much"
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Sentences with recent actions
If an action has just happened, I should use present perfect, right? (At least in BE)
Like: A friend come back and he is sweating, I can reply "What has happened?" right?
And:(fake story :)) ...
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Use Past perfect tense for future hypothetical situation
If I had married someone before you graduated, would you hate me?
I have learned that the pattern "if I had done..." is usually used to talk about hypothetical situation in the past. But I'...
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Use of "had/have been"
I had been for a long walk and was feeling tired.
(An example sentence from a grammar book, without context.）
I am not familiar with the use of "had been" here. I think it is equivalent to ...
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What is the exactly structure of "Perfect Participle"?
I read many grammar books and they always say that the structure of "Perfect Participle" is "Having + Been + V3 + Past Simple Tense". Still, I found many sentences do not follow ...
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Using perfect modals for future
I have seen that to talk about some past events by using modals,we mostly use perfect modals(such as could have ,should have, would have, might have ,may have)and to talk about future and present ...
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Perfect or perfect continuous?
Perfect simple and perfect continuous are sometimes confusing for learners. I know we can use "I've worked for twenty years" in place of "I've been working for twenty years". Both ...
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Two years have passed since he died
I'm just wondering. Is the following sentence OK?
Two years have passed since he died.
The word "since" means "from a point in the past until now", so it can be used with "...
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Present perfect or past perfect in a (specific) sentence?
I start with the assumption that the following sentence is correct.
John told me that his father had been ill since Christmas.
My question is whether the above sentence can also accommodate the ...
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She has written novels vs. a novel
When someone says "She has written a novel", the salient interpretation is that the writing is complete: the whole situation is interpreted perfectively.
However, I think it is also possible ...
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The United Kingdom had its coldest April night since 2018
Normally, you'd need the present perfect (or the past perfect) when accompanied by since, as in:
The United Kingdom has had more than 1 million diagnosed cases of the coronavirus since the start of ...
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It was several years since I had been travelling that road
Tell me please, do I understand correctly that we use "since" with the past tense, but we must only use "that" with perfect sentences like this:
"It was several years since I ...
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Left or had left? Older brother Tai Shan left/ had left the zoo for China in 2010
Her mother, Mei Xiang, gave birth to her first cub, Tai Shan, in 2005, but failed to get pregnant for years. Then, a cub born in 2012 didn’t survive. Mei Xiang has since had a third surviving cub, Bei ...
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What is perfect for a stative verb?
I have been struggling with understanding perfect tense since I started learning English. This is what I have learned so far:
It is generally said that if an action happened in the past but it has ...
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why use "had had" instead of just using "had" in this context?
excerpt from a text:
"He’d had a complicated childhood and was especially close to his brother, with whom he works. Friends suggested he was cheating. But I knew he was just trapped in an all-...
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have been painting vs was painting
Situation:
Yesterday I painted half of my room (for any reason I'm not going to continue, maybe I've broken my leg).
A friend of mine comes into the room the next day.
He says: What's the smell?
Which ...
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“I had been thinking of” or ”I thought about“
Is the following correct:
I thought about killing myself for a couple of hours after I swallowed the pill.
or do I have to change it to:
I had been thinking of killing myself for a couple of hours ...
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Present perfect and present perfect continuous
Someone has eaten all the cookies.
Someone has been eating all the cookies.
What is the difference in the two tenses?
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The present perfect semantics
How could these explanations be understood?
McCoard (1978) (and also Sorensen, 1964: 78) takes great pains to disprove that 'He has died' means 'He is dead', a line of reasoning which he qualifies as &...
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Passive perfect tense.. Do both sentences have the same meaning?
Older versions of Google Chrome have been detected multiple vulnerabilities.
Multiple Vulnerabilities have been detected in old version of Chrome.
Do both sentences have the same meaning?
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Could you explain the usage of "would + perfect infinitive" in this example?
— Did you have anything to do with the things that were put on the wall there?
— No, that would've been Sam.
I've always seen would've been in conditional sentences, as in "If you were smarter, ...
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I haven't been to the gym since June
I know it is right to say "I've gone to or been to the gym many times since June" according to the answers to my other recent question. But if I want to use the negative form, do both ...
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I've been to Japan many times since 2010
I've been to Japan many times since 2010.
I've gone to Japan a few times since 2020.
Are the two sentences both correct? In these sentences, does "been to" mean the same as "gone to&...
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Is there any difference: "I had an accident." and "I have been in an accident."
I had an accident.
I have been in an accident.
Although the first sentence seems more common, today I have come across the second sentence and got suprised.
I checked online and saw it frequently used ...
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About present perfect continuous tense and present perfect tense
A : How much have we spent on food this week
B : A lot.
In A’s sentence, if ‘this week’ would be ‘for this week’ then, could I use the present perfect continuous tense? Instead of ‘have we spent’. For ...
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Past Simple or Past Perfect? Why do we use them this way in the quote?
Here is a quote from "To Kill a Mockingbird":
When enough years had gone by to enable us to look back on them, we
sometimes discussed the events leading to his accident. I maintain
that the ...
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Present perfect for actions that are still ongoing or have just finished
Can present perfect be used in the following situations? Present perfect continuous is the usual choice, but do native speakers use present perfect simple too?
"It has rained for two hours" ...
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Emphasizing a Sentence in Perfect Tense
If we want to emphasize the predicate of a simple tense sentence, we only need to add the auxiliary verb “do” (or “did”). Example:
I came here.
I did come here. (emphasized)
However, what can we do ...
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Is it okay to use present perfect in this sentence?
You've seen how it happened. So, you're the next that they will come for.
Is it okay to use "have seen" in this sentence, or would past simple be more acceptable? I'm not sure which is ...
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Present Perfect or Simple Past for hypothetical situations?
I wonder what verb tense I should use when I'm making hypothetical sentences.
For instance:
Imagine you're writing a book with an intention in mind, and when people read your work, they get a ...
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What does this sentence imply? Past Simple
"I learned English 2 years ago". What does it imply? Like a fact: I did learning at some time 2 years ago or I finished learning English 2 years ago? As far as I know it means the first ...
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"Who's been here" vs "Who was here" [closed]
"Who's been here?"
"Who was here"
What's the difference between these sentences and when should I use them? And what "i've been here" means by itself?
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Why is it "have you gone to the gym" instead of "have you been to the gym"?
I would really appreciate it if you could help me with the following sentences:
How many times have you gone to the gym this month?
Have you ever gone to a game?
I have double checked the ...
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Use of the present perfect simple by persons in authority making a report
I read this report, made by a senior coroner at an inquest, and I wondered whether it has become common for the present perfect simple to be used in this way?
"She had been missing for a few days ...
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It would have been a good idea for him to have gone
It would have been a good idea for him to have gone to that school.
Does sentence (1) alone provide sufficient information for the reader/listener to assume that "he" didn't in fact go to ...
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Present perfect (has/has been) [duplicate]
Just when I think I have understood Perfect tenses, something comes up and I just can't get my head around it.
In my book it says that:
We can also use the present perfect for states.
1. The shop has ...
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why "has been telling" and not "has told"?
good morning,can someone explain the difference in this sentence I came across recently:
"The point of both is say that the writer has been telling the truth".
I found it on this site when ...
