Grammar

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Hello everyone,Is it okay to use present perfect or present perfect continuous with the time expressions "this month" and "this year" as follows?1. It has rained this year.2. It has rained this month.3. It has been raining this year.4. It has been raining this month.PS. I think we can use present continuous or future simple as well as follows:5. It's raining this year.6. It will rain this month.7. It's going to rain this month.Are #5, #6, and #7 correct?Regards,Joseph

AlpheccaStars · Accepted Answer

3 and 4 do not make sense - rain does not continue for a month.

5 is not good.

6 and 7 are fine.

CalifJim · Answer

Joseph AIs it okay to use present perfect or present perfect continuous with the time expressions "this month" and "this year"

In general it's OK, but it depends on the action or activity you're talking about. As already mentioned, we tend to think of rain as continuing during a certain period, so the verb 'rain' doesn't work so well in these contexts.

However, with some verbs we can think of sporadic activity rather than of continuous activity. The continuous tenses can still be used in these cases.

I've been playing tennis this month.

Here we don't think that I played tennis continuously without stopping to eat or to sleep, nor do we think I necessarily played tennis every day. That's because of the nature of the activity "playing tennis".

In the case of I've played tennis this month, the idea is more vague. Maybe I played once, but maybe I played a few times.

In most cases where activity in involved, even sporadic activity, the present perfect continuous is a better choice than the simple present perfect. ('this month' and 'this year' are optional in the following examples, but I included them because you asked about them.)

Tom has been working on his motorbike this month.
Francine has been reading the classics this year.
Pete and Helen have been traveling a lot this year.

CJ

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