Present Perfect Vs. Present Perfect Progressive

[Keo Somala]

Hi Everybody,

I have two sentences which I have misunderstood badly.

1. He has been drinking too much lately. (Can I use present perfect)?)


2. She has read 20 pages so far. (Can I use present perfect progressive?)

Hope you can help me.

[prathna]

Um, I have some ideas for these questions.

1. He has been drinking too much lately. (Can I use present perfect)?)
In this case, Present Perfect Simple is less likely to be used because the action repeats sometimes in the past until now. So if you use Present Perfect Simple, it seems like the action had already finished. Furthermore, the word "lately" refer to the action that happen in the most recent time, so Present Perfect Progressive is the most suitable tense to be used.

2. She has read 20 pages so far. (Can I use present perfect progressive?)
In this case, Present Perfect Progressive is not acceptable because the action had already finished. "She has read 20 pages so far" means that she finished those 20 pages, so it's a complete action that's why you should use Present Perfect Simple.

If you say that "She has been reading this book during her flight" means that she hasn't finished it yet, she may has finished some pages.

That's all for my explanation. Hope I got it right.
(^_^)

[Keo Somala]

Hi Prathna,

These are good and clear explanations, indeed, Prathna. You are right in your explanation.


With the frist example, I in fact meant to say 'He has been drinking too much recently.' What do you or other friends think about this?

 

[Greeny]

Hi Everybody,

I have two sentences which I have misunderstood badly.

1. He has been drinking too much lately. (Can I use present perfect)?)


2. She has read 20 pages so far. (Can I use present perfect progressive?)

Hope you can help me.

For these questions, my answer is NO. I think Prathna gave good explanation already, so there's nothing more I can say.

[Kimlong]

Hi Everybody,

I have two sentences which I have misunderstood badly.

1. He has been drinking too much lately. (Can I use present perfect)?)


2. She has read 20 pages so far. (Can I use present perfect progressive?)

Hope you can help me.

The first sentence is usually used Present perfect progressive. You know why? The adverb Lately expressed us that such behavior, I mean his drinking, is behaved temporarily not permanently. He just drinks like this currently or lately but before is not.


The sencond sentence should be general used as Present perfect simple. You know why? Talking about somewhat or entire completed result, Present perfect simple is always used! You see your sentence mentioned about the completed result, 20 pages, accordingly we cant use present perfect progressive in term of grammatical correction use.

That's what I think!
Kimlong

[Pros_DingDong]

In general, people use present perfect progressive when they want to stress on an action that is still occurring. Example, I have been READing books since this morning. We don’t care how many books have been read. It stresses on ACTION, not quality. And the action is continuous without any disruption.

Present perfect can be used to describe quality of action and experience sometime in the past at no specific time. Example, I have read THREE books today. That doesn’t mean I already stopped reading. In fact I’m still reading while saying the sentence, but I want to tell about my accomplishment. Also it’s used to tell about experience. Example, I have visited Angkor Wat twice (no specific time.)
BUT it’s also used to talk about continuous experience. Example, I have talked to my teacher once in a while (I talked to him last month, five days ago, yesterday, and possibly today.) It describes something that is not continuous but still happens.

This is just my opinion. I have been away from grammar books for too long. There certainly are some other usages that I don’t know of.
When it comes to describe continuous actions, there’s no clear cut between the two. But I think people prefer to use present prefect progressive to describe something that started at specific time (could be mentioned) and still is going on. And present perfect is used for illustrating experience that started taking place quite a while ago at no specific time and still goes on.

[prathna]

I got another points...

"Present Perfect Simple" answers the question "How often? or How many times?"
Ex: How many books have you read?

Whereas,

"Present Perfect Progressive" answers the question "How long?"
Ex: How long have you been studying English?
(^_^)