Answer to "how long"

Question

Dear teachers,could you possibly help correct my sentence below?:A: How long have you been learning English?B: Oh, I have been learning English for (only) several days/weeks/months now.A: How long have you been learning English?B: Oh, I have been attending only several class sessions of English so far Thank you in advance

Clive · Accepted Answer

Hi,

could you possibly help correct my sentence below?:

A: How long have you been learning English?
B: Oh, I have been learning English for (only) several days/weeks/months now.

Say 'only' or 'now', but not both.

Short answer: Several weeks.

A: How long have you been learning English?
B: Oh, I have attended ~~been attending~~ only several class sessions of English so far

'Attended' is a formal kind of word. 'Class sessions of English' is not idiomatic.

Casual answer: I've been to several classes so far.

Clive

Tuongvan · Answer

Thank you  Clive very much

Anonymous · Answer

Clive, with all due respect but sentence number two is not correct anymore if you change the tense.
If the question is in present perfect, it should also be answered in present perfect.
The question starts from a point in the past and refers to the present. Therefore the answer has to do the same.
Anke

Tuongvan · Answer

Hi, Do you mean"I have been attending several classes so far" is coorect ?

Khoff · Answer

Anke, answers do not always have to be in the same tense as the question. If the question is "How long have you been studying English?", it would certainly be correct to say, "I have been studying English for six months." But it would not be incorrect to say "I started last June," or "I've only had six lessons," or "I never studied English, I just picked it up from watching American TV."

In a grammar exercise, you might be expected to give an answer in the same tense as the question, but real life is not so restricted.

Answer to "how long"

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