47
votes
"Carrie has arrived at the airport for two hours." - Is this sentence grammatically correct?
It's grammatical, but it doesn't make much sense, a bit like Noam Chomsky's famous sentence, "Colorless green ideas sleep furiously."
To arrive is something that happens instantaneously, not over a ...
- 8,045
23
votes
Accepted
"My boss was furious with me and I have been fired" vs. "My boss was furious with me and I was fired"
The first thing to realise is that in most cases, whether or not to use the present perfect is a free choice: it depends on how you are choosing to relate the events to the present circumstances.
If ...
- 73.7k
22
votes
Accepted
Shouldn't it be "HAVE been put on hold" instead of "HAD been put on hold"?
First, it can't be “have been put on hold”. It would have to be “has been put on hold”, because the subject is “the repair …”, which is singular.
It is also possible to say “the repairs … have been ...
20
votes
Accepted
"I am finished" vs "I have finished"
Depending on context they could have the same or slightly different meanings
I have finished
would be said after completing a task either very recently or some time in the recent past
I am ...
- 66.2k
18
votes
Is "I have been to Italy two years ago for 2 months" correct?
It would be fine to say I have been to Italy, but once you add the time and duration, the event becomes much more specific. I think the simple past is more appropriate:
I was in [or, went to] ...
- 281
16
votes
"Carrie has arrived at the airport for two hours." - Is this sentence grammatically correct?
Carrie has arrived at the airport for two hours.
This sentence does not work in English. To arrive is an action that is conceived of as taking place at once, not over time. So using a duration (for ...
- 12k
15
votes
"Carrie has arrived at the airport for two hours." - Is this sentence grammatically correct?
I would use the present perfect verb (the point of the exercise being use of the present perfect) "has been"
Carrie has been at the airport for two hours.
- 2,515
15
votes
Shouldn't it be "HAVE been put on hold" instead of "HAD been put on hold"?
One would generally expect the sentence to read:
*The repair of the 300-year-old building began nearly a decade ago but HAS been put on hold because of a lack of financial support."
That would ...
- 25.7k
11
votes
Accepted
How can an event prove by itself?
The it in the sentence is just the dummy it. An English sentence has to have a subject, but sometimes there's no obvious subject for a sentence, so we use it to stand for the existence or nature of ...
- 40.8k
10
votes
"Carrie has arrived at the airport for two hours." - Is this sentence grammatically correct?
If you want to keep most of the words from the original sentence, I would use:
Carrie has been at the airport ever since she arrived two hours ago.
The original sentence's focus is on the arrival ...
- 304
9
votes
"I am finished" vs "I have finished"
You could say either one, but things get more complicated when you elaborate and mention what you've finished:
I have finished this task.
I am finished with this task.
J.R.♦
- 109k
8
votes
Is 'She has been taken' active or passive voice?
This construction is present perfect passive.
When you talk about 'subjects' and 'objects' you must be careful that you do not confuse syntactic roles, the functions word or phrases play in a ...
- 175k
8
votes
How can an event prove by itself?
There are multiple senses of the verb to prove. In the example sentence, the following form is used (from Oxford Dictionaries):
prove
Verb
2.1 [no object, with complement] Been seen or found ...
- 5,552
8
votes
Can I say "something is happened to my phone"?
You can say "something happened to my phone". That tells your listener that the thing that happened, happened in the past. Your listener doesn't know whether there is still a problem. So you'd have ...
- 2,283
8
votes
Accepted
Using "when" with Present Perfect
As FumbleFingers and 1006a mention in the comments, there's nothing grammatically wrong with using the present perfect with "when". However, it imbues the question with nuance, since it often implies ...
- 88.1k
8
votes
"My boss was furious with me and I have been fired" vs. "My boss was furious with me and I was fired"
Both are fine.
...and I was fired.
This explains what happened in the past - you were fired.
...and I have been fired.
This explains your current situation - you are in a state of having been ...
- 4,130
7
votes
Accepted
Is the phrase "are you come" in this sentence correct?
It's "correct" but outdated. You'd be hard pressed to find someone using it in modern English.
The modern equivalent would be "have you come here".
In this example, the Giant is asking the man why ...
- 25.4k
7
votes
"My boss was furious with me and I have been fired" vs. "My boss was furious with me and I was fired"
Can I also say "My boss was furious with me and I have been fired."?
That's an error, but it's not a grammatical error, more of a style error. "My boss was furious" is simple past. "I have been fired"...
- 5,895
7
votes
"My boss was furious with me and I have been fired" vs. "My boss was furious with me and I was fired"
If the speaker were talking to someone soon after the firing, the "was...have been" construction would be appropriate.
The "have been" verb is in the present perfect tense, which describes an action ...
- 374
7
votes
Do these sentences mean the same: "He has been found not guilty" and "He has not been found guilty"
They do not mean the same thing! In one, the trial has concluded and the verdict given. In the other, the trial may not have even begun yet.
You are correct that "not guilty" is a fixed ...
- 12.7k
6
votes
Past simple or present perfect for an action in the past
When we approach grammar as a set of "rules" — "is this tense right or wrong or possible or impossible?" — we can lose sight of the fact that tenses are expressive.
Yes, it is possible to use the ...
- 121k
6
votes
"I am finished" vs "I have finished"
Both are grammatically correct.
I am finished
The speaker is in the state of being finished with a task.
I have finished
This describes the completion of the task in the very recent past. (...
- 179
6
votes
"My boss was furious with me and I have been fired" vs. "My boss was furious with me and I was fired"
The answer depends on what language you are asking about.
In English, "...have been..." is a statement about the present as well as the past. It talks not only about what happened, but also about ...
- 201
6
votes
Accepted
Use of "had/have been"
(1) I had been for a long walk and was feeling tired.
This (1) is the past perfect construction (or tense). It indicates that the action (here the walk) started and ended in the past, and probably ...
- 40.9k
5
votes
"I have submitted the application" is it a right sentence?
I have submitted the application, and await your feedback.
is correct. Present perfect tense is used, because the actions related to your application (review and decision) are in the present time ...
- 31.1k
5
votes
What tense to use for an event that was no longer valid?
Your analysis is correct, but there's one thing you overlooked: the present perfect cannot be used with a time adverbial which does not include the present. This is because the present perfect is a ...
- 175k
4
votes
Present perfect or past simple with since
The word since is used with two primary meanings:
for the duration of a period from a stated time or event up to the present
because
When used in the "durational" sense with reference to a personal ...
- 18.7k
4
votes
Complicated sentences in past perfect regarding hypothetical situations with reflection on the past?
Grammar is like water, in that speakers will take the path of least resistance. Things begin to become ungrammatical, or at the very least unidiomatic, when the water starts flowing upstream, as it ...
- 121k
4
votes
"Carrie has arrived at the airport for two hours." - Is this sentence grammatically correct?
The syntax is valid but the semantics is not.
see https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/29504/syntactically-correct-semantically-incorrect-sentence
Any native speaker would conclude that the ...
- 41
4
votes
usage of 'having been + past participle'
Is it okay to use 'Having been+third form' as the reduction of Passive Relative Clause in Simple Past Tense in order to put more emphasis?
In a word, no—because BE having been VERBPaPpl is not ...
- 175k
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