a good student

[ostap77]

If someone's doing a great job and got a good education in college, could I use the present perfect to emphasize it and extend it to the moment of speaking "I guess he's been a great student in college!"?

[Tdol]

Not if they have finished at college IMO.

[TheParser]

If someone's doing a great job and got a good education in college, could I use the present perfect to emphasize it and extend it to the moment of speaking "I guess he's been a great student in college!"?

NOT A TEACHER


(1) I think that it would work with a modal:

Wow! He must have been a great student in college!

[ostap77]

NOT A TEACHER


(1) I think that it would work with a modal:

Wow! He must have been a great student in college!

1)I'm not being a pain in your b......t but people say things like "When did you last see him? It's been, about an hour ago." or "Why are you so tired? I've been to an all-night party, yesterday."?

2) What if I don't know whether he's graduated college or not? If the person I'm talking about is youg I could think he's a student working a job to get extra money.

[TheParser]

I'm not being a pain in your b......t but people say things like "When did last see him? It's been, about an hour ago." or "Why are so tired? I've been to an all-night party, yesterday."?

NOT A TEACHER


(1) If this is another topic, I believe that the teachers want learners such as you and I

to start a new thread. But maybe they will not be too cross with me if I answer your

new question in this thread.

(a) I believe that many Americans prefer "a pain in the a _ _." We can say, however,

"a pain in the neck." When we say "neck," we know that it's a nice substitute for

"a _ _."

(b) It is true that native speakers often leave out words in fast conversation, but I

doubt anyone would say "Why are so tired?" BUT they would look at you and

exclaim: "Why so tired?" (Why (are) (you) so tired?)

(c) I doubt that any native speaker would say "When did last see him?"

Tom: Have you seen Joe recently?

Martha: Not for a long time.

Tom: Really? What's the last time?/ When was the last time? When was it?

[5jj]

I'm not being a pain in your b......t but people say things like "When did you last see him? It's been, about an hour ago." or "Why are you so tired? I've been to an all-night party, yesterday."?

And people say things like 'I ain't not never seen him', but we do not consder that as generally acceptable. In this forum we generally talk about something as being 'acceptable' if it is used by the majority of moderately educated speakers in situations that are not particularly informal.

Most people do not write words such as those underlined. They may say such things; usually it's a case of 'derailed' grammar. The speaker of the second sentence probably had a thought process something like: "I've been to an all-night partty. It was yesterday night" The two ideas have ben run together.

If you looked a a transcript of authentic speech in an informal situation, you would think that most of the things you have been told about English were untrue. Most learners wish to learn a form of English that is fairly universally accepted as 'standard'.

[englishhobby]

Sorry for jumping in , I think the present perfect is used by the speakers in the examples because they were speaking about VERY RECENT PAST. They wouldn't say the same (about being tired, for example) if they thought of a party that was several days ago. To me this use of present perfect seems similar to the use of present perfect continuous in "I've been running" ( I ran three minutes ago, but I am not running at the moment). I only doubt if it's possible to say "I've been running a few minutes ago"??

[5jj]

Sorry for jumping in , I think the present perfect is used by the speakers in the examples because they were speaking about VERY RECENT PAST. They wouldn't say the same (about being tired, for example) if they thought of a party that was several days ago.

When people are talking about the very recent past with the present perfect, they do not normally distance what they are saying with such past-time words as "ago." or "yesterday."

"I have seen him recently." (In certain contexts, this might have happened one or two months ago).
X "I have seen him yesterday." - Not standard usage.

[englishhobby]

1)I'm not being a pain in your b......t but people say things like
2) What if I don't know whether he's graduated college or not? If the person I'm talking about is youg I could he's a student working a job to get extra money.

Then you may say "He must be a college student, and a very good one.(IMHO)

[ostap77]

NOT A TEACHER


(1) If this is another topic, I believe that the teachers want learners such as you and I

to start a new thread. But maybe they will not be too cross with me if I answer your

new question in this thread.

(a) I believe that many Americans prefer "a pain in the a _ _." We can say, however,

"a pain in the neck." When we say "neck," we know that it's a nice substitute for

"a _ _."

(b) It is true that native speakers often leave out words in fast conversation, but I

doubt anyone would say "Why are so tired?" BUT they would look at you and

exclaim: "Why so tired?" (Why (are) (you) so tired?)

(c) I doubt that any native speaker would say "When did last see him?"

Tom: Have you seen Joe recently?

Martha: Not for a long time.

Tom: Really? What's the last time?/ When was the last time? When was it?

Sorry. I messed up. It's unacceptable of me to leave out so many words. Getting old and becoming forgetful! Well, how about the college sentence? If I didn't know whether my co-worker had graduated from college or not, could I say "He's been a good student in college."?