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Questions tagged [perfect-aspect]

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This tag is use to look back from a specific time and talk about things up to that time or about things that are important at that time.

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If two people are husband and wife and they continue to be married in the present and they hope in the future, can I use present perfect continuous, marrying? If not, how/why is this different from (...
visineri's user avatar
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Could you explain the diference between He might as well not have noticed her. He might as well have failed to notice her. Which of them would be a suitable response to A. She was wearing a wig and ...
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On my English test, we had to transform this sentence: What would you have done in my situation? into an expansion using a phrase involving the word shoes following the word If in this sentence: If ...
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Source: F1 facebook channel is here. Please, just watch the first 10 seconds. Journalist: If you weren't a Formula 1 driver, what would you want to do instead? G.Russel: I used to say if I wasn't a ...
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Source: Top Gear: Teenage Challenge (Part 3) is here 3:10 Hammond, Clarkson, and May are trying to park their cars by a house (according to the script, belonging to their parents) so quietly as not to ...
Tony_M's user avatar
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My question is actually taken from a book of a well known author (this is "W Is for Wasted" by Sue Grafton), so I think it's my fault that I can't understand the usage (beacuse she just ...
Igor Fedorov's user avatar
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The sentences are mine. My friend sent me a really long message yesterday. I can’t even imagine how much time it had taken. My friend sent me a really long message yesterday. I can’t even imagine how ...
Tony_M's user avatar
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Source: How a Bee Ruined Jeremy Clarkson's Day | Behind The Scenes Clarkson's Farm | The Grand Tour here. 2:10 Caleb: How did you have to adapt in the pandemic? Jeremy: It made no difference, as you ...
Tony_M's user avatar
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The dialogue is mine. A - Last week on Tuesday, I had a video call with Maria. B – Cool! I haven’t seen her for ages. How is she? A - I don’t know. She wasn’t in a good mood and asked me to sit with ...
Tony_M's user avatar
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The example is mine. Sorry for not sending you the report on time. Last working week was so hectic and unproductive that on Saturday I needed to catch up on my backlog. Only on Sunday did I remember ...
Tony_M's user avatar
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Given that the present perfect can be used to talk about both life experiences and present outcomes, which of the two would this sentence (as it stands) mean? I've earned more than $600.000. It says ...
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Do you say, "Who could've guessed this would happen?" or "Who could've guessed this would've happened?"? Context? I was watching a streamer, Asmongold, and he was reacting to Trump ...
IlyaTretyakov's user avatar
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1- "He had to do it." (obligation) This sentence is easy to understand for me. It is the past form of "have to" to refer to the obligation in the past, although we don't know for ...
Yunus's user avatar
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In the sitcom "Married with children", two characters said the following: Al: "If God didn't want other people to hear your voice, he wouldn't have made it so shrill". Peggy: &...
Leroy's user avatar
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a. He had been working for us before he started working for you. I can see three possibilities: He started working for you right after he stopped working for us. There was a time lapse between the ...
azz's user avatar
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If you have drunk too much milk, you might have been taller. Is this sentence grammatically correct?
sedat yıldız's user avatar
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I have been watching TV twice this week I had been watching TV twice this week I will have been watching TV twice by the end of this week. Now, I know that you could say that all these examples are ...
Bob's user avatar
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By the time I arrived at the scene, the meeting had been over. When I arrived at the scene, the meeting had been over. Are the two sentences correct?
Ben Yao's user avatar
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I read that the perfect continuous is an action that continuous up to another point and my teacher told me that usually these actions are ongoing or they end very close to the other point. My question ...
fatemeh khayat's user avatar
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What is the difference between the uses of tense and aspect in the following sentences? I was told that the use of the perfect infinitive indicates an event which occurred prior to the "seeming&...
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There is this quote from the show Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey that confuses me: If it wasn't for Edmond Halley, Newton's great book would've never been conceived, nor written, nor printed. Now I ...
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Why does this sentence use "would have?" Why not say "Today is the birthday of our FA Cup winning captain, Jack Nicholas?" Today would have been the birthday of our FA Cup winning ...
Nyambek's user avatar
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Admittedly, there are a few questions similar to this, but I find that the examples are usually compromised by other errors. In these two examples (below), which use participle clauses as supplements, ...
MJ Ada's user avatar
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He placed an order OR He has placed an order. He has now be waiting for three weeks but no goods have arrived. My question is: Does the first sentence denote the starting point of the following ...
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What is the difference between the Simple aspect and the Perfect aspect? Background: It says: "The simple aspect does not tell us whether action is ongoing or complete as it does not contain ...
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Upon jumping over the puddle... On jumping over the puddle... Is the jump completed or underway? And do the prepositions on and upon have the same meaning in that respect? Upon jumping over the ...
TimR on some device's user avatar
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I read a wonderful article on this resource about the Perfect construction - Canonical Post #2: What is the perfect, and how should I use it? - and came across this part: Adjectival participles The ...
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I have passed the English grammar test. I'm B1 and can't complain about that. But I have a major questions about verb tenses anyway. I ______ your book. It's fantastic. I'll finish it tonight. have ...
Phaenomenon Sanctus's user avatar
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Which tense should I use in the subordinate clause when the main clause in the present perfect tense. I'm thinking about this particular scenario: "I've seen a great nation fell." versus &...
Uneau's user avatar
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Is there any difference between (1) and (2)? (1) Almodovar's film was considered to be the most innovative. (2) Almodovar's film was considered to have been the most innovative. (1): means that the ...
Meriem AISSAOUI's user avatar
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I am walking. I have been walking. I know those sentences have the same meaning. But under what context is it better to use one rather than the other? Maybe below. I am walking for more than 2 hours....
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For example: I haven't had my breakfast. I hadn't had my breakfast. I didn't have my breakfast. Could you clarify if the abovementioned sentences are grammatically correct, and if yes, then what are ...
Nandita Sen's user avatar
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Past Perfect Last week our teacher gave back the essays we had written the week before. The house was quiet when Andrew got home. Everyone had gone to bed several hours earlier. Annie didn't want to ...
Serg's user avatar
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The question is to find error if there is one. The current economic scenario (a)/ could possibly undo (b)/ the growth that followed (c)/ the economic liberalization of 1991. (d)/ No error (e) I am ...
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(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 ...
MJ Ada's user avatar
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Action (dynamic) verbs are present in 2 different forms: The progressive which means that the action is not completed (finished) and the perfect which means that the action is completed. Action verbs ...
Help Me911's user avatar
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In the 12th episode of the 2nd season of Suits one of the characters said the following. I want to have talked to everyone of my clients by the end of the day. That's the first time I've seen the ...
Dmytro O'Hope's user avatar
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Please help me and tell me, which one of these sentences should I use? Until they have prepared our room, we will wait in the hotel lobby. Until they prepare our room, we will wait in the hotel lobby....
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This question came in the Dhaka University admission exam 2002-03 Q) It ____ raining since morning (a) is (b) was (c) has been (d) had been My question bank says that the answer is (c). An alternative ...
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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 ...
listeneva's user avatar
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Let’s suppose that a few days ago your friend recommended a certain book to you, so later on you took went out and bought that book for yourself. How would you normally relate the foregoing sequence ...
Pyotr Sobolev's user avatar
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I’ve been reading this page three times already, but I still don’t understand it. Or I’ve read this page three times already, but I still don’t understand it. Is the action in progress or is it ...
Yevara Saleya's user avatar
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Is this correct: I had been staying in the Emergency Department for three days until the doctors could identify the missing diagnosis. where "staying" is used together with another action ...
Costas's user avatar
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Many natives told me that simple past always tells about completion, so I've been wondering how to speak about actions that you were doing at a specific time in the past, but in the end didn't finish. ...
IlyaTretyakov's user avatar
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As a technology visionary, Elon Musk has created cars that have challenged the conventional automobile industry and rockets that have saved space transportation costs. Is this sentence correct? It ...
Arvind's user avatar
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Please help me out, what extra words are needed to convey the incomplete nature of the actions? A: What did you do yesterday? B: I read books. I wrote my book. I built the wooden ship (which you had ...
IlyaTretyakov's user avatar
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Could you tell me what is the difference in meaning between blame someone for doing something and blame someone for having done something? For example: Kate blames Jack for ruining the cake. Kate ...
Dmytro O'Hope's user avatar
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About continuous aspect in this site British council>Continuous aspect, they say that continuous aspect can be used to describe something happening again and again. I don't really understand the ...
Ssupermeo's user avatar
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2 votes
3 answers
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I was watching a movie yesterday and came across a dialogue: What is this? It's the technology I developed. Is the Past Simple "developed" the right tense? Shouldn't it be put in Present ...
Savva Pavlenko's user avatar
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First answer: ✅ Have you always been living in a big city?(ʀɪɢʜᴛ ᴀɴꜱᴡᴇʀ) ❌ Have you always lived in a big city? (ᴡʀᴏɴɢ ᴀɴꜱᴡᴇʀ) Second answer: ✅ By the end of August they’ll have been working on ...
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