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Perfect Stranger Posted 12 years ago
Grammar

Grammar question no. 69: recently (again)

Dear All,

In the following sentence recently is used with simple present tense.

All these things stress me out recently.

Should this sentence be rephrased into:

All these things have stressed me out recently.

or

All these things have been stressing me out recently.

Or should be just keep the sentence unchanged?

Cheers
  

Top answer

It's wrong. Both of your alternatives are fine.

— Clive

  • It's wrong.
  • Both of your alternatives are fine.
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7 Answers
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It's wrong.

Both of your alternatives are fine.
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a. All these things stress me out recently.
b. All these things have stressed me out recently.
c. All these things have been stressing me out recently.

a. They situation is still present.
This is about the things now; they might not usually stress you out.

b. The situation might have just stopped.
This is about the things up to now; they might not usually stress
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Thank you Clive and Anonymous.

I hate to say it but I'm a bit confused. Anonymous's answer, as detailed as it is, brings the element of confusion into my mind because it justifies the use of simple present + recently...
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Could someone please address point a) of Anonymous' answer? Seems like it justifies the use of simple present + recently...
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Recently refers to the past, so you need a tense that relates to the past.

Look here.
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/recently
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Thanks Clive.

One more follow-up question. Are these sentences OK?

1) Recently I haven't looked good.

2) Recently I haven't been a good person.

They don't sound very natural or native-like to me...
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To make these sentences sound more natural, put 'recently' at the end.

The progressive tense is probably more natural in #1 too.
ie 1) I haven't been looking good recently.
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