Some confused english grammar problems...

Question

0I am not good at present perfect tense.The usages of this tense is: 1.Actions which started in the past and are still continuing 2.Actions which happened at some unknown time/unspecific time/unfinished time in the past,which means02br00it's important to say that something happened (or didn't happen).3.Actions which happened in the past, but have an effect in the present.02br02br00Here are some problems:I have written six letters this morning. It means I have finished writing six letters,right? but how to figure it out? why it doesn't mean like the usage 2, i wrote 5 letters before, and now i am still writing letter, and this letter is the sixth letter.( we know we won't write 6 letters at the same time, we write one letter once, then we write another letter),is that because "this morning" is an unspecific time/ an unfinished time(suppose it is 9:00 A.M now,it is still morning,not finished),it is not a duration time? I have been writing letters all morning. it means i wrote some letters before, and still writing LETTER now.(present perfect continuous tense has only this usage) i think "all morning" is a duration. but can i say 01u00I have been writing 01b00six02b00 letters all morning02u00, and it means i wrote 5 letters before,and now i am writing the sixth letter? Can i say 01u00I have been writing letters 01b00this02b00 morning02u00? Can i say 01u00I have written letters 01b00all02b00 morning02u00? does it mean i wrote letters before and still writing it? Can i say 01u00I have written 01b00six02b00 letters all morning02u00? it means i wrote letters before,and still writing letter now? Can i say 01u00I have written 01b00letters02b00 this morning02u00? it means i wrote letters before?     And I am not sure if the negative present perfect sentence has the same usages as the present perfect statement's. Like,I have eaten chicken,it means i ate chicken. I haven't eaten chicken. what does it mean? it means i didn't eat chicken before (usage 2/3) Or I didn't eat chicken and not continuing,not eating now(usage 1) Or it depends on the context.02br02br00I hope you can answer those questions, maybe you feel confused,but please look at it very carefully,then you will know what i mean! Thanks.0-

CalifJim · Accepted Answer

0You may be driving yourself crazy trying to make every sentence with a present perfect tense fit into one those three categories! 05002br
02br
01i00I have written six letters this morning.02i02br
02br
00 This means that during the morning you finished the task of writing six letters. You are not still writing the sixth letter. You are not writing anymore. You are now just sitting there, perhaps, looking at what you have accomplished during the morning and you see the six letters on the desk. You are saying where you stand with respect to letter-writing at this very moment. You are saying that at this moment you 01u00have02u00 six letters before you, all written.02br
01i02br
00 I have been writing letters all morning.02i02br
02br
00 This says what activity you were involved with all morning, that is, during the entire morning. It is still morning and you may still be writing letters or you may have decided to stop now. In either case, the sentence just says what activity you were involved with up until this moment of speaking.02br
02br
01i00I have been writing six letters all morning.02i02br
02br
00 This is a strange sentence. It says the activity you were involved with was the writing of 01b00six02b00 letters. It gives the distinct impression that you were working on all six at the same time. I envision you stopping one letter for a while and writing part of another, then stopping that letter and working on one of the others, and so on, and continuing from one to another all morning.02br
02br
01i00I have been writing letters this morning.02i00 Yes, you can say that.02br
01i00I have written letters all morning.02i00 Yes, you can say that. Writing letters is an activity that can happen all morning.02br
01i00I have written letters this morning.02i00 Yes, you can say that.02br
01i00I have written six letters all morning. 02i00 No. Writing 01b00six02b00 letters is an accomplishment that can't happen all morning. But to show that you intended to write more letters and are disappointed that you only wrote six, you can say 01i00I have only written six letters all morning.02i02br
02br
00 It's easy to see how this topic can become very confusing!02br
02br
00It would be better to ask shorter questions by dividing this up into several posts. 05102br
02br
00 CJ02br
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Paco2004 · Answer

0 Hello MIA602br
02br
00Are you a native speaker? If so it's very interesting to me. I'm a Japanese, who have learned English rather for a long time but still find it tough to catch the exact sense and usage of English present perfect tense. I'm afraid you might feel ill to hear about the grammar of your native tongue from a foreign person who is learning it, but if you don't mind, please read with a laugh wondering in what a queer way an English learner from Orient understand your mother tongue.02br
02br
00As far as I have learned and as far as I have understood, the basic notion of the English expression "I have done something" is "I now have the result of an experience that I did it in the past". 02br
02br
00So "I have written six letters this morning" is "I have now the result of an experience that I wrote six letters this morning". It means you have already finished writing all the six letters. "I have been writing letters all morning" means "Now it is still morning but this morning I wrote some letters and still I am writing a letter". 02br
02br
00"I have been writing six letters all morning" sounds a bit weird. "Write letters" can be used to express an activity of writing some letters in a generic sense but "write six letters" sounds to be any specified activity such that you should know what letters the six letters are. So, if I hear "I have been writing six letters all morning", I take it as "This morning you began writing six letters in parallel and you are still continuing the six paralleled activities of writing a letter". 02br
02br
00"I haven't eaten chicken" may be commonly taken as "I have the result of an experience that I never ate chicken in the past". Suppose your mother asked you in the kitchen "did you snitch the chicken?" and suppose you answered like "No, I haven't eaten the chicken". This means "I didn't yet eat the chicken this time". The use of THE before "chicken" gives to "eat" a notion of a specified activity.02br
02br
00paco02br
02br
00[PS] When I finished this writing, I noticed CJ had already posted a much better answer. But I will dare to post it hoping it can be served as a material for you and other native speakers to know what understanding an ESL student has about English present perfect tense. 0-

Anonymous · Answer

0I dare to ask Mr. Paco how the sentence "I have been writing letters all morning." can insinuate the notion that01u00 s/he is continuing to write a letter even if it is assumed to be morning. 02u00 I dare to ask Mr. Paco for further edification. 0-

Demetrius · Answer

0CalifJim has written 05000 an excellent summary here. May I just add a couple of observations of my own.01blockquote

01cite10CalifJim12cite10You may be driving yourself crazy trying to make every sentence with a present perfect tense fit into one those three categories! 15112br
12br
11i10I have written six letters this morning.12i12br
12br
10This means that during the morning you finished the task of writing six letters. You are not still writing the sixth letter. You are not writing anymore. You are now just sitting there, perhaps, looking at what you have accomplished during the morning and you see the six letters on the desk. You are saying where you stand with respect to letter-writing at this very moment. You are saying that at this moment you 11u10have12u10 six letters before you, all written.12br
12blockquote

10I think it's important to make it clear here that we should only use the above sentence in the present perfect tense if it is still "this morning". In other words, there must remain the 01i00potential02i00 for me to write 01i00more02i00 letters this morning. If it is now evening, I must say "I wrote six letters this morning" (in the imperfect tense) because I cannot now write more. This is the 'present' element of the present perfect tense: it is "this morning" 01i00now02i00, when I say it. The 'past' element (and it 01i00is 02i00a past tense despite what some confusingly claim) is that 01b00the writing02b00 was done in the past, and is now finished (present perfect) or continuing (present perfect progressive).01blockquote

01cite10CalifJim12cite11i10I have been writing letters all morning.12i12br
12br
10This says what activity you were involved with all morning, that is, during the entire morning. It is still morning and you may still be writing letters or you may have decided to stop now. In either case, the sentence just says what activity you were involved with up until this moment of speaking.12br
12blockquote

10This is the present perfect 01i00progressive02i00 tense, and it is subtly different. As Jim says, the letter-writing 01i00started02i00 in the past, but I am implying that it 01i00may02i00 still be continuing. Again I can only say this sentence 01i00this morning02i00, not this evening, because I am referring to this morning as the time I write the 01i00sentence02i00 (not the letters).01blockquote

01cite10CalifJim12cite10It's easy to see how this topic can become very confusing!12br
12br
10It would be better to ask shorter questions by dividing this up into several posts. 15212br
12br
10CJ12br
12br
12blockquote

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MIA6 · Answer

0Thanks for your replying, but I have some questions about them: 02br
02br
01i00I have been writing letters all morning.02i02br
02br
00This says what activity you 01b01u00were02u02b00 involved with all morning, that is, during the entire morning. It is still morning and you may still be writing letters or you may have decided to stop now. In either case, the sentence just says what activity you were involved with up until this moment of speaking. Here you used "you were involved...",you used past tense,so i am not sure what are you trying to say.02br
02br
01i00I have been writing six letters all morning.02br
02br
02i00This is a strange sentence. It says the activity you 01b01u00were02u02b00 involved with was the writing of 01b00six02b00 letters. It gives the distinct impression that you 01b01u00were02u02b00 working on all six at the same time. I envision you stopping one letter for a while and writing part of another, then stopping that letter and working on one of the others, and so on, and continuing from one to another all morning. Here you used "you were involved...","you were working on..." you used past tense, so you mean i have done six letters?0-

CalifJim · Answer

0 With regard to 01i00I have been writing ...02i00, you end your post with the question02br
01blockquote

00so you mean 11del~~10i12del~~10 I have done six letters12blockquote

12br
00 The answer is "No". When I explain 01i00have been writing02i00 in terms of 01i00were working on02i00, I don't mean 01i00have done02i00; I mean 01i00have been doing02i00.02br
02br
00 Maybe a point of confusion lies with the progressive tenses - the ones with the 01b00-ing02b00 forms.02br
00 If we can say that we were writ01b00ing02b00 letters, and we continue writing them up to the moment of speaking, we can say we have been writ01b00ing02b00 letters.02br
00 If we can say that we wrote letters, we can say that we have written letters.02br
02br
01i00were writ01b00ing02b02i00 does not mean 01i00wrote02i00.02br
01i00have been writ01b00ing02b02i00 does not mean 01i00have written02i00.02br
02br
01i00were writ01b00ing02b02i00 and 01i00have been writ01b00ing02b02i00 both say that an activity was in progress, not that it finished.02br
01i00wrote02i00 and 01i00have written02i00 both say that the writing finished.02br
02br
00 CJ02br
0-

Paco2004 · Answer

0 01blockquote

01cite10Anonymous12cite12br
10I dare to ask Mr. Paco how the sentence "I have been writing letters all morning." can insinuate the notion that11u10 s/he is continuing to write a letter even if it is assumed to be morning. 12u10 I dare to ask Mr. Paco for further edification. 12br
12blockquote

10Hello Anon02br
02br
00If we are not given any other context, I'd take the sentence as you say, i.e., "the person is still writing a letter".02br
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00I feel English speakers are using the present perfect continuous tense in two ways. For example, take a sentence "He has been drinking", then I take it as either of the two as follows02br
00 1. He has drunken for a time in the past and he is still now drinking. 02br
00 2. He is not drinking now, but he still has a result of continuously drinking in the past.02br
02br
00We have to know from the context in which usage a speaker is using the present perfect continuous tense. For example, suppose in night Johnny wants to play with his father who has been sleeping since he got back home in late evening and suppose his mother tells him like "Don't wake up him, Johnny! Dad has been working all the day". This "Dad has been working" means "Dad has still a result of continuously working in the day time", i.e, the second meaning.02br
02br
00paco 0-

Some confused english grammar problems...

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