Says vs. is saying vs. has said vs. has been saying

Question

Hello,Could you please advise the difference in meaning between the following sentences?  I understand all are in the present tense and what was said continues   to be true at present, but I can't figure out how they are different.  A.  Jason says you're a liar.B.  Jason is saying you're a liar.C.  Jason has said you're a liar.D.  Jason has been saying you're a liar.

Anne58 · Accepted Answer

First of all, C. and D. are actually not present tense. The use of has indicated that the action has already been done. Also, said is the past tense of say.

I'm no expert in grammar but my interpretation of A. and B. are:

A. would describe what Jason has told me

B. would describe what Jason is telling everyone else

Philip · Answer

AnonymousHello,Could you please advise the difference in meaning between the following sentences? I understand all are in the present tense and what was said continues to be true at present, but I can't figure out how they are different.

A. Jason says you're a liar. normal or frequent activity

B. Jason is saying you're a liar. current activity

C. Jason has said you're a liar. at some unspecified time in the past

D. Jason has been saying you're a liar. from some time in the past up to the present, repeatedly I hope this helps a little.

Anonymous · Answer

Thank you, Anne and Philip, for giving your interpretations. Great help!

PhilipB. Jason is saying you're a liar. current activity

Can this also mean repeatedly, picking up from Anne's interpretation that Jason is telling everybody else, meaning he said it more than once?

If so, how is it really different from A, which is a frequent activity or done repeatedly?

Anonymous · Answer

Hi Philip,

Could you comment on my last post, please? Thank you.

CalifJim · Answer

AnonymousCould you please advise the difference in meaning between the following sentences?
I understand all are in the present tense ...

They are all in tenses which represent a present point of view, but they are not all in the present tense.

A. Jason says you're a liar. present

B. Jason is saying you're a liar. present progressive

C. Jason has said you're a liar. present perfect

D. Jason has been saying you're a liar. present perfect progressive

Where X is the time of the utterance, ! indicates a one-time event, and - - - indicates repeated events,

..past..>>>..................X.................>>>...future....

[ says ]

[has said!]

CJ

Anonymous · Answer

Thanks so much, CJ, for your explanation. Your illustration was really helpful and easy to understand. Just some follow-up questions:

1. Is 'says' also a one-event like 'has said'?
2. If so, the way I understand the illustration is 'says' describes more recent event while 'has said' describes an event that happened far from the time of utterance. Please confirm.

3. Since 'is saying' and 'has been saying' indicate repeated events, I think one of the repeated events in 'is saying' could include an event that happened near the present moment of utterance like ten minutes ago, which is actually in the past. In contrast to 'has been saying', one of the repeated events happened far from the present moment of utterance. Would you agree? My dilemma is how near is near and how far is far from the moment of utterance.

CalifJim · Answer

Anonymous1. Is 'says' also a one-event like 'has said'?

With the verb "say", it usually is a one-time event, but it can also be habitual in nature, in which case it is much like "is saying" in the habitual sense. Note that in some situations, several different tenses may be appropriate for speaking about the situation. The speaker may use one or the other tense depending on how he sees the situation or merely by making an arbitrary (and somewhat meaningless) choice. Not all of language is, or needs to be, as precise as mathematics.

Anonymous2. If so, the way I understand the illustration is 'says' describes more recent event while 'has said' describes an event that happened far from the time of utterance. Please confirm.

"says" tends to be more recent (nearly immediate, in fact) than "has said". Nevertheless, "has said" need not be extremely far in the past, and usually isn't. As noted above, there can be situations in which either tense is appropriate. Generally speaking, though, the present perfect indicates that a past event impinges in some way upon the present situation, for example: He has said this. What are you going to do about it now?

Anonymous3. Since 'is saying' and 'has been saying' indicate repeated events, I think one of the repeated events in 'is saying' could include an event that happened near the present moment of utterance like ten minutes ago, which is actually in the past. In contrast to 'has been saying', one of the repeated events happened far from the present moment of utterance. Would you agree? My dilemma is how near is near and how far is far from the moment of utterance.

Ten minutes ago -- or even ten days ago or more -- can still be conceptualized as part of the "present". Near and far from the moment of utterance are less important than you may think.

"Nowadays" or "These days" is a vague span of time, and these expressions are used with the present tense. It depends on the background span of time against which you are comparing. Nowadays we drive cars. (The present century!) (More than a century ago, we traveled in horse-drawn carriages.) Here the present tense indicates a "present time" of more than 100 years!

Likewise, He is saying that you are a liar is like "These days he (repeatedly) goes about telling people that you are a liar." (This is an observation about his present actions. The speaker only knows that this is happening currently. He has no idea about when this habit may have begun.)

In contrast, He has been saying that you are a liar is like "For some time he has been (repeatedly) going about telling people that you are a liar." (This is an observation that his present actions started some time ago and are still continuing. The speaker knows that this is happening currently, but he also knows that this activity started some time ago and wishes to call attention to it.)
_______________

You may wish to think of this difference in terms of which tenses govern which adverbs of time. If the speaker knows the activity started some time ago, and he knows more specifically when it started, he may indicate this with a for-phrase or a since-phrase combined with the present perfect tense:

He has been saying this for two weeks.
He has been saying this since last Thursday.

Without such an indicator, the speaker acknowledges that he knows, more or less, that the activity began in the past, but he doesn't specify explicitly when it began.
___

Grammatically, you cannot use these with the present tense because when you use the present tense, you make no claim to know when the situation began:

~~He is saying this for two weeks.~~
~~He is saying this since last Thursday.~~

Your examples contain no adverbs of time, so the two tenses as used in your two examples may seem quite similar to you. It's only when the adverbs are added that you see a clearer difference in how the two tenses are used.

CJ

Anonymous · Answer

Thanks so much for your explanations. They were really comprehensive and complete as to what I needed to know.

I hope grammar books discuss topics like this as detailed as yours.

I really appreciate your time and effort in assisting me. I can't thank you enough.

CalifJim · Answer

You're very welcome.  <img class='emoticon' style='Width:19px;Height:19px;' data-delaysrc='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/5.gif' src='https://uat-englishforward-forums-backend.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/Emoticons/5.gif' alt='Emotion: wink'/>

Anonymous · Answer

There is a shift in the meaning of the verb when "say"is used in the present progressive.

I am saying you're a liar. - means "That's what I meant when I said [xyz] before without actually using the word "liar".
I say you are a liar. - I literally call you a liar.

This is a shift siimilar to that with the stative verbs which typically don't take the progressive aspect, e.g. "think", "imagine" etc.

There are semantic pairs of verbs where one is more typically used in the progressive, and the other not.
Say-tell is one such pair, where "tell" is more typically used in the progressive.

Says vs. is saying vs. has said vs. has been saying

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