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Tkacka15 Posted 8 years ago
Vocabulary

Have remained

"More than a year and a half since the 2016 Brexit vote, the United Kingdom remains deeply divided over the planned EU exit that Prime Minister Theresa May says will take place on March 29, 2019." (The Guardian.)

Is there any grammatical reason behind using the simple present, i.e., "remains", instead of "has/have remained" in the sentence above?

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I understand that the deep division in the British society started after the Brexit vote (in June 2016) and have been lasting since. That's why I'd use the present perfect here.

  

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— Tkacka15

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2 Answers
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I've made an error in my post. There should be "(Reuters.)" instead of "(The Guardian.)" there.
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There are two compelling reasons here for using the present simple here.

1- The verb "remain" is a stative verb, so the present simple (not the continuous) is correct.

2- The present simple is typically used for current facts/truths.


Moreover, the present perfect takes in the past, right up to the present (but not always including the present).

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