confusion

Question

You are always listening to sad music when something is wrong. What is it?
You always listen to sad music when something is wrong. What is it?

And

You look so happy! What have you been doing all morning?
You look so happy! What were you doing all morning?

which of these are correct?

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

Anonymous1) You are always listening to sad music when something is wrong. What is it?
2) You always listen to sad music when something is wrong. What is it?
3) You look so happy! What have you been doing all morning?
4) You look so happy! What were you doing all morning?

All are grammatically correct.
2) is more appropriate than 1) in my opinion.
3) is appropriate; 4) is not particularly appropriate.

The use of the present perfect in 3) ties what has been happening to the resulting happiness. The use of the simple past in 4) makes a time gap between what was happening and the happiness. Consequently, in 4) it seems that the question "What were you doing ...?" could be less related to the remark that "You look happy".

|< - - - - have been doing - - - - >|happy
|< - - were doing - - >| ............... |happy

CJ

Anonymous · Answer

Thank you! <img class='emoticon' style='Width:19px;Height:19px;' data-delaysrc='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/1.gif' src='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/1.gif' alt='Emotion: smile'/>

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