[Grammar] Scientific and technological advances have been transforming our world.

[Son Ho]

Could I use the present perfect continuous tense in sentence 1? I think transform is an action verb, not an stative one so we prefer the present perfect continuous. However, we also use the present perfect, don't we?

1. In the past half-century, scientific and technological advances have been transforming our world.
2. In the past half-century, scientific and technological advances have transformed our world.

 

[emsr2d2]

They're both grammatically possible. I prefer the second but the first is possible if you want to emphasise the ongoing transformations that have been taking place over the last fifty years.

 

[jutfrank]

I think transform is an action verb, not an stative one so we prefer the present perfect continuous.

This is not the right way to think.

It seems to me that the sentence you want is very probably sentence 2, because I think you want to focus on the result of the transformation rather than the process. You want to focus on the fact that the world is quite different now from fifty years ago. Am I right?

 

[Son Ho]

This is not the right way to think.

It seems to me that the sentence you want is very probably sentence 2, because I think you want to focus on the result of the transformation rather than the process. You want to focus on the fact that the world is quite different now from fifty years ago. Am I right?

Yes, you are. I do ,but actually this is a sentence in an exercise book that I would like to look into. Could you please tell me how to give readers the feeling that the writer wants to focus on the process in that sentence? And then, I can use the present perfect continuous rather than the present perfect. Do you think past in the phrase in the past half-century implies the continuous action?

 

[jutfrank]

I'm not sure I understand what you're asking.

Which sentence are you talking about? Sentence 2? The writer wants to focus on the result of change, not the process of change. To help focus on the process instead, the present perfect continuous version could include a different preposition in the time phrase, such as Over or Throughout.

 

[Tdol]

They have been transforming our world for a lot longer than that- you could say that the pace of change has increased greatly in the last fifty years. Telephones, computers, TV, cinema, vaccines, cars, satellites, etc, all predate your time period, and that is before we get onto the wheel and the printing press.

 

[Son Ho]

I'm not sure I understand what you're asking.

Which sentence are you talking about? Sentence 2?

Yes, it is. Now we can use the present perfect continuous because the following sentence focuses on the action.

1. Over the past half-century, scientific and technological advances have been transforming our world.

 

[Tdol]

The verb form is fine- they haven't finished and we are in a state of constant change.

I still question the meaning.

 

[Rover_KE]

... actually this is a sentence in an exercise book that I would like to look into. Could you please tell me how to give readers the feeling that the writer wants to focus on the process in that sentence?

You should have given this information in post #1. We can help you best when we know the full context of your questions.