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Wwwdotcom Posted 20 years ago
Grammar
Have you been living or dying?
1. I have studied for 10 hours. (I still need to do more, perhaps tomorrow I'll study for 3 more hours.)
2. I have been studying for 10 hours. (I am still studying and will study 3 more hours before tomorrow.)
Above, I have tried to show the difference between Present Perfect and Present Perfect Continuous. What I am having a problem with is a sentence like:
3. I have been living in France for 4 years.
Grammatically, this is supposed to indicate the speaker is still living in France, as opposed to "I have lived in France for 4 years", which could be stated by the speaker even if they were living in another country. The effect is like saying "It is a fact that..."
However, the continuous form just sounds strange to me. Have been living? as opposed to dying? What I would do to indicate you are still living in the country, is to add "now":
4. I have lived in Paris for 4 years now.
What do you think? Should a sentence like 3 be avoided even though in normal conversation no one would care?
2. I have been studying for 10 hours. (I am still studying and will study 3 more hours before tomorrow.)
Above, I have tried to show the difference between Present Perfect and Present Perfect Continuous. What I am having a problem with is a sentence like:
3. I have been living in France for 4 years.
Grammatically, this is supposed to indicate the speaker is still living in France, as opposed to "I have lived in France for 4 years", which could be stated by the speaker even if they were living in another country. The effect is like saying "It is a fact that..."
However, the continuous form just sounds strange to me. Have been living? as opposed to dying? What I would do to indicate you are still living in the country, is to add "now":
4. I have lived in Paris for 4 years now.
What do you think? Should a sentence like 3 be avoided even though in normal conversation no one would care?
Top answer
3. is perfectly normal and acceptable. It's not saying living as apposed to dying, it's saying in France as apposed to anywhere else.
- 3.
- is perfectly normal and acceptable.
- It's not saying living as apposed to dying, it's saying in France as apposed to anywhere else.
- It's a very common phrase.
- You are reading too much into it.
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4 Answers
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3. is perfectly normal and acceptable. It's not saying living as apposed to dying, it's saying in France as apposed to anywhere else. It's a very common phrase. You are reading too much into it. 'Living' here has the meaning of residing, not existing.
After all, if you want to question someone on where they live you say 'where do you live?' or 'where are you living now'. No-one finds that
After all, if you want to question someone on where they live you say 'where do you live?' or 'where are you living now'. No-one finds that
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Wwwdotcom wrote: 4. I have lived in Paris for 4 years now.
Is 'now' necessary?
Is 'now' necessary?
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The "now" is not essential, but emphasises that this is the situation at the moment. If I continue to live in Paris it will become more than 4 years.
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Thanks, Lewis, for confirming what I thought it should have been, i.e. the word 'now' is not necessary.
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