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Nsfs2 Posted 14 years ago
Grammar

Simple present or present continuous

Hi,

'Forests are cut down so that a lot of animals leave their natural habitat.'
'Forest are cut down so that a lot of animals are leaving their natural habitat.'

Are both of the tenses correct in this context?What is the difference in meaning?

Thanks.
  

Top answer

Accuracy - inherently yes, but "so that" is probably not what is meant. That says that forests are being cut down with the purpose of making animals leave. However, "A lot of animals leave their natural habitat because forests are [being] cut down" and "A lot of animals are leaving their natural habitat because forests are [being] cut down" are both correct (order switched).

— Leah S

  • Accuracy - inherently yes, but "so that" is probably not what is meant.
  • That says that forests are being cut down with the purpose of making animals leave.
  • However, "A lot of animals leave their natural habitat because forests are [being] cut down" and "A lot of animals are leaving their natural habitat because forests are [being] cut down" are both correct (order switched).
  • They work with or without [being], but the sentence would read better to me with it, especially in the present continuous.
  • The meaning of the two sentences does not differ much, to my mind.
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22 Answers
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Accuracy - inherently yes, but "so that" is probably not what is meant. That says that forests are being cut down with the purpose of making animals leave.

However, "A lot of animals leave their natural habitat because forests are [being] cut down" and "A lot of animals are leaving their natural habitat because forests are [being] cut down" are both correct (order switched)
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Leah SAccuracy - inherently yes, but "so that" is probably not what is meant. That says that forests are being cut down with the purpose of making animals leave. However, "A lot of animals leave their natural habitat because forests are [being] cut down" and "A lot of animals are leaving their natural habitat because forests are [being] cut down" are both correct (order s
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nsfs2Can 'so far' not be used to express result?
The issue in the original question was about "so that". Is that what you meant or is this a separate question?
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nsfs2Can 'so far' not be used to express result?Or there is something else I'm missing?I need further elaboration on that,please.
Sorry.Can 'so that' not 'so far'....
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"So that" usually indicates a purpose: I bought more flour so [that] I could make muffins. One would not say "I bought more flour so that I ran out of flour"; in this case, the cause (I ran out of flour) is listed as the desired result. Do not use it where you would end up saying the action takes place as a result of the result itself, such as with the original: "Forests are cut down
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Hi.

Please note that what looks like the present simple form in the first sentence is actually subjunctive. You cannot say: “Forests are cut down so that the particular species leaves its natural habitat.” The verb would still have to be “leave”. “So that” is a resulting conjunctional phrase and takes a subjunctive or modal verb. Therefore, what you want to say should either be “..
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Word warrior23Hi.Please note that what looks like the present simple form in the first sentence is actually subjunctive. You cannot say: “Forests are cut down so that the particular species leaves its natural habitat.” The verb would still have to be “leave”. “So that” is a resulting conjunctional phrase and takes a subjunctive or modal verb. Therefore, what you want to s
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nsfs2I want to express result and I've read that one can use' so that' for introducing a result clause.Here is the following example:'They turned the radio up, so that everybody heard the announcement',
This is correct. I think your confusion is about which part of the sentence is the result. (I, in turn, am not really sure how best to explain this.)

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Leah SI hope this has not confused you too much
It has indeed.Thanks,anyway.
I hope someone can help.
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In order to try to help you, I've made this very general. It is not completely accurate but I hope will help with the idea.

"I will try to simplify it, so that you might understand."
"I explained it too badly before, so you were confused."

I did not intend for you to be confused, and that is written with only so.

For this example, try repl
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