Rephrase

allthewayanime · Sep 20, 2012

I would like to know if the following sentence ' We went to Budapest 2 days ago' can be rephrased as 'We had been in Budapest for 2 days' or should it be 'We have been in Budapest for 2 days'?

5jj · Sep 20, 2012

You can say 'We have been in Budapest for two days' only if you are still there. In that case, you would say, 'We came to Budapest two days ago'.

azkad · Sep 20, 2012

NOT A TEACHER

In my opinion, the sentence cannot be paraphrased in that way:
1) We went to Budapest 2 days ago. (It means how many days ago someone was somewhere; a person might have stayed in Budapest more than a month or longer)
2) We had been in Budapest for 2 days, before we got our return tickets. (exactly two days before something happened)
3) We have been in Budapest for 2 days. (It means that someone has been somewhere until now, but we do not know exactly when)

My version is as follows:
We were in Budapest two days ago.
or
We travelled to Budapest two days ago.

Raymott · Sep 20, 2012

azkad said:
NOT A TEACHER

In my opinion, the sentence cannot be paraphrased in that way:
1) We went to Budapest 2 days ago. (It means how many days ago someone [STRIKE]was[/STRIKE] went somewhere; a person might have stayed in Budapest more than a month or longer). They can't have stayed in Budapest for a month if they only went there 2 days ago.
2) We had been in Budapest for 2 days, before we got our return tickets. (exactly two days before something happened)
3) We have been in Budapest for 2 days. (It means that someone has been somewhere until now, but we do not know exactly when) Yes we do know when - 2 days ago. We also know who it was (We) and where they were (Budapest)

My version is as follows:
We were in Budapest two days ago.
or
We travelled to Budapest two days ago.

This is a bit confusing. Maybe I've misunderstood some of your points.

Rephrase

allthewayanime

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5jj

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azkad

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Raymott

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