Is it OK to say this with regard to the use of perfect tense?

Question

We have moved to a new house for a week now.

Mister Micawber · Accepted Answer

No. If you are now in the house: We have been moved into a new house for a week now. If you are still in the process of moving: We have been moving into a new house for a week now.

FRANKLY SPEAKING · Answer

Excuse me Mister Micawber , you said :
We have been moved into a new house for a week now.

We have been moving into a new house for a week now

I am a little comfused , could you please explain more , because i didn't get you .

As i know , if we want to tell a sentence in the passive we replace the subject with the object , after omitting the subject ,

For example : I have cleaned the car ten times .

The car has been cleaned ten times . [ passive ]

But you used the subject in both of the two sentences , even though one of them is in the passive .

How comes ? could you explain it to me ?

--------------------

(1) We have been moved into a new house for a week now. If you are now in the house

(2) We have been moving into a new house for a week now. If you are still in the process of moving

The first one is more complicated than the second one , and what now for here ? As i know, it is used with the present continuous .

isn't it ?

Thanks in advances

Dominik · Answer

AnonymousWe have moved to a new house for a week now.

IMHO this sentence is fine but I'm not a native so I can be wrong.
I don't know why Mr Micawber used the passive, but I had heard that the passive is very often used in English. Maybe that's the reason

PS. Should it be move into or move to or move in ? In my dictionaries are all these posibilities.
I think that move in underlines the fact that you are in a new house; move to underlines the fact of moving to a new house/place . Am I right? That's my theory

Mr Patrick · Answer

I think it would be helpful to get some further explanations from the original poster, because it is not clear what he/she is trying to say with the sentence. There are many possible variations in meaning, for example:

1. We have moved into a new house. The speaker relates a recent event, so maybe the "a week ago" could be omitted.

2. We moved into a new house a week ago. Same as above, but with an explicit time marker (a week ago, last week, etc), which triggers the use of the simple past.

3. A week ago, we moved into a new house. Very similar to (2), its use will depend on the context of the conversation. If you are about to talk about the house, you would ususally use (2). If you are about to talk about other recent events, (3) would be more common.

4. We have been moving into a new house for a week now. Quite different from the previous examples: This sentence says that the task of moving to a new house has dragged on for a week, and that it is still not finished.

5. We have have been moving into a new house since last week. Similar to (4).

6. We have been moved into a new house...... (The example given by Mr Micawber) Yet another variation; it implies that the decision about the move was taken by a higher authority (maybe the local administration).

Whichever variation you choose, you should make sure that all elements point to the same place in time. It is difficult to use "for a week now" in the perfect tense, because the phrase implies an ongoing event.

Anonymous · Answer

Thank you all for the elaboration.

The meaning I intented is 2, 3.

I assume that basically it makes little difference whether it is active or passive.
(we moved into/we were moved into the new house.)

But to use perfect tense along with a modifier indicating a duration of time (for a week now), it's necessary that the verb be "be" instead of "move," because the former can mean something that continues for a certain length of time and therefore fits with the use of perfect tense, whereas the latter means something that is done at a certain point of time without the implication of continuation and so does not fit with perfect tense.

In connection with this, the thing that intrigued me was that it is possible to say "I have used it for a week now" while it's not possible to say "I have moved here for a week now," as pointed by Mr. Guru in Yokohama. (See "Is it OK to say this with regard to the use of perfect tense?")

Anonymous · Answer

I'm sorry that I made a mistake in the last post.

(See "It is OK to say this....) should have been (See "About perfect tense.)

Thank you.

Teo · Answer

Mister MicawberIf you are now in the house: We have been moved into a new house for a week now.

It has been a week since I moved into a new house.

FRANKLY SPEAKING · Answer

Mr Patrick5. We have have been moving into a new house since last week. Similar to (4).

Could you tell me what this tense is ?

with best regards .

Mr Patrick · Answer

Hi Frankly,

It´s called the careless-cut-and-paste-tense !

Obviously, it should read as follows:
5. We have been moving into a new house since last week.

Apologies to all who were confused by the mistake.

Is it OK to say this with regard to the use of perfect tense?

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