a good student

Status
Not open for further replies.

ostap77

Key Member
Joined
Sep 9, 2010
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Ukrainian
Home Country
Ukraine
Current Location
Ukraine
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

No Longer With Us (RIP)
Staff member
Joined
Nov 13, 2002
Native Language
British English
Home Country
UK
Current Location
Japan
Not if they have finished at college IMO.
 

TheParser

VIP Member
Joined
Dec 8, 2009
Member Type
Other
Native Language
English
Home Country
United States
Current Location
United States
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

Key Member
Joined
Sep 9, 2010
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Ukrainian
Home Country
Ukraine
Current Location
Ukraine
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.
 
Last edited:

TheParser

VIP Member
Joined
Dec 8, 2009
Member Type
Other
Native Language
English
Home Country
United States
Current Location
United States
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

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Oct 14, 2010
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
British English
Home Country
Czech Republic
Current Location
Czech Republic
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

Key Member
Joined
Jun 19, 2009
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
Russian
Home Country
Russian Federation
Current Location
Russian Federation
Sorry for jumping in :oops:, 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"??
 
Last edited:

5jj

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Oct 14, 2010
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
British English
Home Country
Czech Republic
Current Location
Czech Republic
Sorry for jumping in :oops:, 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."

:tick:"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.
 
Last edited:

englishhobby

Key Member
Joined
Jun 19, 2009
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
Russian
Home Country
Russian Federation
Current Location
Russian Federation
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

Key Member
Joined
Sep 9, 2010
Member Type
Student or Learner
Native Language
Ukrainian
Home Country
Ukraine
Current Location
Ukraine
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:roll:! 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."?
 
Last edited:

TheParser

VIP Member
Joined
Dec 8, 2009
Member Type
Other
Native Language
English
Home Country
United States
Current Location
United States
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."?


NOT A TEACHER


(1) Thank you for your note.

(2) I do not have the confidence to answer your question, so -- according to the

rules here at usingenglish.com -- I must not answer it. We will have to wait for a

teacher's answer (or the answer from a more intelligent non-teacher than I).
 

5jj

Moderator
Staff member
Joined
Oct 14, 2010
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
British English
Home Country
Czech Republic
Current Location
Czech Republic
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."?
ostap, once again you are pushing things to extremes. In order to create a context for this utterance, you have come up with this:

You have a coworker. You don't know whether he graduated from college or not - indeed, so far you have not told us that you know for a fact he has even attended college (though no doubt you will). For some reason or other you feel the need to tell a third party that your colleague was/has been a good student at college
. :roll:

I suggest that if you knew that he was/has been a good student, then you'd know whether he graduated or was still at college.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top