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Anonymous Posted 20 years ago
Grammar

Present perfect vs present perfect continuous...how to choose?

0 Hello all,02br
02br
00Thanks for reading this post.02br
00 I have the following sentence to fill in. What do you recommend?02br
00"Susan (send) her mother at least a dozen letters since she left home. Lately, she (slow down) a buit because she (be) too absorbed in her final exams."02br
00I wrote the following: ""Susan 01i00has sent02i00 her mother at least a dozen letters since she left home. Lately, she 01i00has been slowing down 02i00a buit because she 01i00has been02i00 too absorbed in her final exams."02br
02br
00I used the present perfect continuous for "slow down" because, according to englishpage.com, "lately" is associated with present perfect continuous. Do you guys agree? It does seem wordy a bit, I reckon.02br
02br
00Thanks a thousand times.0-
  

Top answer

0 Hello Anon02br 02br 00I agree that "have been slowing down" is better fit to your context than "have slowed down". But I don't agree to the Englishpage's instruction that we should always use continuous present perfect when "lately" is used. We can use "lately" with simple present perfect in the case the sentence connotes an event continuing from a recent past time up to now.

— Paco2004

  • 0 Hello Anon02br 02br 00I agree that "have been slowing down" is better fit to your context than "have slowed down".
  • But I don't agree to the Englishpage's instruction that we should always use continuous present perfect when "lately" is used.
  • We can use "lately" with simple present perfect in the case the sentence connotes an event continuing from a recent past time up to now.
  • 02br 02br 00paco 0-
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3 Answers
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0 Hello　Anon02br
02br
00I agree that "have been slowing down" is better fit to your context than "have slowed down". But I don't agree to the Englishpage's instruction that we should always use continuous present perfect when "lately" is used. We can use "lately" with simple present perfect in the case the sentence connotes an event continuing from a recent past time up to no
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0 I think "slow down" is strange. It gives the image she is writing or typing her letters/email slower than usual as opposed to less often or the number of letters is less than she "has sent". I don't use continuous here because I want to compare the past with the present. Now thinking about it, I can see why "lately" should go with continuous. So, lately is also strange. Take those 2 out,
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0Hi guys,02br
02br
00I really don't see anything wrong or unnatural about the sentence as originally posted.02br
02br
00Best wishes, Clive0-
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