since

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1
  1. I am ill since yesterday.
  2. I am ill for three months.
  3. I have been ill since last month.
    Are these sentences OK?
2

Only number 3 is correct. You need the present perfect.[YSaerTTEW443543]

TOEIC listening, photographs: Working in the garden[YSaerTTEW443543]

3

Fathima,

I am ill > Present simple.
since yesterday > refers to past.
So, both of them don’t go together.

In order to connect them you need to use either the present perfect simple (as Torsten has said) or the present perfect progressive tense construction. If you use the latter, it will mean that the illness is still continuing.

Compare:

I have lived here for five years. (It does not mean that I still live here)
I have been living here for five years now. (This purports that I am still living here)

4

I don’t agree. I would never say “I’ve been being ill since last month”. Instead, “I’ve been ill since last month” means that I’m still ill at time of speaking.[YSaerTTEW443543]

TOEIC listening, photographs: A food production line[YSaerTTEW443543]

5

This doesn’t automatically mean that you don’t live here now. In fact it is quite the opposite.

6

Torsten, you are right already. Yes, ‘have been being’ is awkward (but technically acceptable), though we mean it so in that situation. I mean the DO verbs, not the BE verbs.

I think we can say it, Alan, in contexts like this: This is the house in which I have lived for five years. (The speaker does not live there any longer)

7

In that instance you can also use the simple past: This is the house in which I lived for five years.[YSaerTTEW443543]

TOEIC listening, photographs: Storage racks[YSaerTTEW443543]

8

***** NOT A TEACHER *****

Hello, Anglophile:

May I most respectfully disagree with you?

I am 99.99% sure that “This is the house I have lived in for five years” means that you are still living there.

Isn’t that the definition of the present perfect? It describes something that started in the past (5 years ago) and still “touches” the present.

James

9

Well, there are other functions of the present perfect:
I have traveled three times to France withing the past 5 years. (I’m no longer in France.)

So I think it also depends on the verb/activity you use.[YSaerTTEW443543]

TOEIC listening, photographs: A warehouse[YSaerTTEW443543]

10

Nothing there indicates that you no longer live in the house.

11

Dear Alan, James and Torsten

As we are taught, I understand that the present perfect simple tense construction may be used to refer to any activity however recent or remote it might be. (Further, the use of they as a neutral singular pronoun is also baffling me). Let me illustrate both.

Suppose you meet a person 100 years old. He visited the Taj Mahal when he was five. You ask them: Have you ever visited the Taj Mahal? He/she says (they say?), ‘Yes, I have’. (I think this dialogue is acceptable and it means that he/she (they) visited the monument 95 years ago).

Now, you ask the same person this question: Would you like to have a cup of coffee? He/she says (they say?): No, thanks; I have just had one. (I think this dialogue is also acceptable and it means that he/she (they) may have had the coffee a few moments ago).

Again, suppose this person had lived in a particular house for five years when he/she was (they was/were) in his/her (their) ‘teens’. Now the person happens to pass by that house and says: This is the house in which I have lived for five years. (I think this implies that the person no longer lives there)

I would request you to patiently examine the above situations and comment on them. Please remember that I am a non-native user of English, which is your language. I believe you will appreciate that you may not evince so much interest in understanding/learning my own language as I do in yours. Kindly do not take this amiss. I am being frank. Thanks.

12

No, if you say “I’ve just had one” it means that the person has had a coffee recently/has just finished their coffee. Yes, it’s perfectly acceptable to use ‘they’ instead of ‘he/she’ and ‘their’ instead of ‘his’/‘her’.[YSaerTTEW443543]

TOEIC listening, photographs: Testing[YSaerTTEW443543]

13

Beeesneees / Dozy,
Could I say as below:

  1. I was ill since yesterday.
  2. I was ill for three months.
    If they are wrong, then I have write as below:
  3. I have been ill since yesterday.
  4. I have been ill for three months.
  5. I had been ill since yesterday.
  6. I had been ill for three months.
    Please comment.
14

[quote=“Anglophile”]

Again, suppose this person had lived in a particular house for five years when he/she was (they was/were) in his/her (their) ‘teens’. Now the person happens to pass by that house and says: This is the house in which I have lived for five years. (I think this implies that the person no longer lives there.)

***** NOT A TEACHER *****

Hello, Anglophile:

As usual, you have raised some excellent points.

I think that you are 100% correct if we remove the definite time reference:

Tom and Mona are walking down the street:

Tom: That house looks nice.
Mona: Believe me, it isn’t.
Tom: How do you know?
Mona: Because I have lived in it, so I know all of its shortcomings.
Tom: When was this?
Mona: My husband and I rented it for six months in 2011.
Tom: Oh, I see.

James

15

We are once again going round in circles with the word ‘since’. I suggest you search for your previous examples.

  1. no
  2. yes
  3. yes
  4. yes
  5. unlikely as ‘yesterday’ is too close to the current time. You could say ‘I had been ill since last Friday’. This tense needs a context which conveys that at some point before now you were no longer ill:
    I had been ill since last Friday, but I felt much better when I got up yesterday morning and I’m now feeling fine.
  6. yes. Comments about tense as 5…
16

That is incorrect. As James indicates with an excellent example (though not a present perfect tense example), you use it within a particular context - and the context you supply does not work.

‘This is the house in which I lived for five years,’ is the correct tense in your context. It indicates that the person no longer lives there.
‘This is the house in which I have lived for five years,’ indicates that you still live there.

17

Hi James,

Your example of the use of the present perfect dialogue is interesting but I fear is fatally flawed. I refer to ‘I have lived …’ followed by ‘When was that?’ That won’t wash, I am afraid. The present perfect exists to fuse then and now and not juxtapose them. It’s case of not having your cake and eating it.

Alan

18

Thank you, Alan, for your interesting comment.

19
  1. I was on leave from yesterday.
  2. I am on leave today.
    Are they OK?
20

James,

Though you claim that you are not a teacher, I would say that you are better than a teacher, for you always discern what the poster wants and accordingly explain it in a convincing manner, many often quoting reliable sources.

Now if ‘This is the house which I have lived in for five years,’ indicates that I still live there, what is the difference in ‘This is the house which I have been living in for five years’?