這天朋友拿了一篇文章給栗看，她指著以下句子問：句中的 was 是否該改為 has been？
Mr Lee, who was a teacher for 16 years, is now the CEO of SimTech.
記得基礎文法書曾提到，當句中有「since + 時間」或「for + 時期」，便應用現在完成式 (present perfect tense)，如：He has learnt swimming for three months. They have lived here since 2003.
不過心水清的朋友應該留意到，句子後半段寫李先生現職 CEO，即暗示他再也不是老師。若把 was 轉成 has been，豈非說他現在仍是老師？那便前後矛盾了。
很多人都搞不清現在完成式與過去式 (simple past tense) 的分別，其實要分辨這兩種時式，只要看那件發生了的事情與現在有沒有關連便行。若有的話便用前者，否則便用後者。
記著，文法書中那些「時式提示字」，永遠都有很多很多的例外。所以在判斷使用哪種時式時，請從文意著手，不要盲目信書。
(捱埋今日，便可以好好睡一覺啦！
早晨栗子妹!
回覆刪除"Milk"好看嘛?
"He has learnt swimming for three months" sounds a bit weird to me, although I am sure it's grammatically correct. I would use the present perfect continuous here because the action verb "learn" implies an instanteous action and not a continuous action. "They have lived here since/for......." is fine with me.
回覆刪除謝謝栗妹幚我溫故知新.
回覆刪除呢個問題……
回覆刪除唔太難掛,連我呢D夜校水準都識.
栗子妹，捱埋今日，奸爸爹呀！
回覆刪除 如果只背grammar rules不看書, 英文也不會好. 因文法上會有很多special case呢!
回覆刪除受教了！謝謝！
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