Vanish
Hi Everyone,
Long time, no post.
Here I am. No emojis?
One of my students asked me today if we can say "...is vanishing." My answer to him was "it's better to say, "...has vanished."
My question is why?
How would you explain this?
My guess is that to vanish is instant, so it's not an action as such. (??)
Thanks,
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Top answer
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Lewis Carroll disagrees: "‘All right,’ said the Cat; and this time it vanished quite slowly, beginning with the end of the tail, and ending with the grin, which remained some time after the rest of it had gone."
0They are both fine, but they mean different things.
"is vanishing" is used when something is in the process of disappearing but to some extent still exists or is still visible. (Where appropriate we can consider "vanish" to be a process that takes time rather than an instantaneous action.)
"has vanished" is used in the case when something no longer exists or is no longer visible.
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