the meaning of this sentence

AnonymousHello

I'd like to know the meaning of the following sentence.

#1) He hasn't done his homework yet.

Can I use #1) when he has started his homework and hasn't finished ?
Or does #1) mean he hasn't started his homework?

Thank you for your help.

#1) He hasn't done his homework yet. = He has not started h

Hi guys,

He hasn't done his homework yet.

This really means he hasn't finished his homework yet. He may or may not have started it.

Best wishes, Clive

Dear Clive,

I see what you mean. Can I still say I have not done my homework yet and mean I did not start it?

Thank you

Yes, you can; whether you have started it or not is not stated. If you want to be precise, you'll say "I haven't started my homework yet", or "I haven't finished my homework yet".

I'm sure that's technically correct, but personally I wouldn't say "I haven't done my homework yet" if I had already started it. To me the sentence has strong connotations of the homework not having even started. My mind says "to do homework" is an event (perfective aspect if you will) and that the whole act of doing the homework is encapsulated in this one event. By analogy, I wouldn't sa

Yes, I guess you're right, Calif... It could be "I haven't done all of my homework yet", or "haven't finished..." It's true that when I tell my son "Hey, stay here! You haven't done your homework yet!" I certainly have in mind the sore fact that he hasn't startedit yet...

Hi,

I think that as CJ suggests, it's idiosyncratic.

Clive

Hi, Clive,
So, supposing you have a son who has a homework assignment, how do you feel about this exchange?

Your son has been sitting at the kitchen table doing his homework for nearly an hour.
He interrupts his work and says that he's going to a school ball game.
You say, "You can't go to the game. You haven't done your homework."

Does "You haven't done y

Hi CJ,

Does "You haven't done your homework" sound completely natural to you? It sounds OK to me. In fact, if he got up from the table wordlessly, I'd probably ask 'Have you done your homework?' or maybe, 'Is your homework done?'

'Do' is just a verb that seems, to me, to go with 'homework' in most permutations. Just idiomatic, I guess.

Cliv

Thanks for the quick reply, Clive.
I was pretty sure that's what you meant the first time around.
Just wanted to double check!