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  #1 (permalink)  
Unread May 28th, 2015, 11:35 am
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Default Present perfect or present perfect continuous?

Hi,everyone.Can you help me find any indicator or time word that make us chose one tense over the other?(Taken from a textbook)
1.Look! Somebody(drop)their wallet on the pavement.
2.John looks tired.I don't think he(sleep)very well recently.
According to the text,the answers are:
1.has dropped 2.has been sleeping
Can I say in 1,it's pps because of the verb"Look!" or the verb"drop" tends to be shorter here ? and in 2, ppc because of "recently",but it comes with both.It's really confusing.
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Unread May 29th, 2015, 01:07 am
Sue
 
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Default Re: Present perfect or present perfect continuous?

1. Could be dropped or has dropped. It depends on speaker perception. Has dropped is probably more likely because it expresses a past event with a present result (the wallet is there now), but if the speaker wants to see it just as a completed past event, s/he'll choose dropped.

2. has been sleeping is most likely. It combines the perfect (past event with present result ...so he's always really tired during the day) and the progressive (= an on-going action - every night for the past few weeks). But again - it depends on speaker perception. If they just want to focus on the past event/present result they might say hasn't slept, or if they just want to focus on the on-going action might say isn't sleeping very well. That would be more likely without recently, but is a possibility.

As always, grammar is meaning. The different forms express different meanings and the speaker will choose the form which expresses the meaning s/he wants to convey - which will always depend on how s/he perceives the event.
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Last edited by susan53 : May 30th, 2015 at 09:58 am.
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Unread May 30th, 2015, 08:57 am
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Default Re: Present perfect or present perfect continuous?

Good answer.
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