He has gone to the bank for an hour.

Status
Not open for further replies.

Alice Chu

Member
Joined
Oct 14, 2019
Member Type
English Teacher
Native Language
Chinese
Home Country
Taiwan
Current Location
Taiwan
Are the following sentences incorrect?
1. He has gone to the bank for an hour.
2. He has been going to the bank for an hour.
3. She has come here for two hours.
4. She has been coming here for two hours.
 
All of them are possible in the right context. They mean different things. What message do you wish to convey?
 
I have two points:

1. The fact that you asked if they are incorrect suggests that you think they are (incorrect). Is that the case? It's more common for people to ask if something is correct.
2. Posting four random sentences without any context or any explanation of how/why you would want to use them seems rather pointless. Give us a situation and then ask if your sentence(s) would be a suitable or correct thing to say in that situation.
 
Perhaps:

Jane: Where's Bob?
Rosemary: He went to the bank. He's been gone for an hour, so he should be back any minute.
Jane: I'm a little early, so I'll wait if you don't mind.
Rosemary: He enjoys playing chess with you.
Jane: I'm sure that's because I always lose.
Rosemary: Would you like some tea?
Jane: I sure would! Thanks!
Rosemary: I'll bring you some. And I'll bring you some of those cookies you like.
Jane: Thank you so much!

I had a hard time thinking up a context for any of them, so I altered one of them and imagined a dialogue to fit it.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
(1) The following verbs cannot be used with a period of time because the action it represents is completed only in an instant and cannot be continued.
Examples: begin, start, finish, end, stop, leave, arrive, die, join, buy, borrow
The four sentences below are incorrect.
1. Joe has died for five years.
2. Joe has been dying for five years.
3. Tom has left for three days.
4. Tom has been leaving for ten minutes.

(2) Do “go” and “come” fall into this category?
 
Please re-read post 3.
(1) The following verbs cannot be used with a period of time because the action it represents is completed only in an instant and cannot be continued.
Examples: begin, start, finish, end, stop, leave, arrive, die, join, buy, borrow
Where did you find that information?
2. Joe has been dying for five years.
3. Tom has left for three days.
4. Tom has been leaving for ten minutes.

Those sentences are possible in certain contexts.
 
Bob: How's Joe?
Bill: It's sad. He's been dying for five years, but somehow he keeps hanging on.

Jack: Where's Tom?
Mack: He's right over there. He's been leaving for ten minutes, but people keep stopping him to talk to him.
 
1. Joe has died for five years. :cross:
2. Joe has been dying for five years. :tick:

There are two very different senses of the verb die:

a) a change of state from living to dead
b) a continuous process culminating in death

Sentence 2 uses sense b) above. As a process, dying can indeed take place over a period of time.
 
John has been dead for five years.
 
The information comes from
https://baike.baidu.com/item/非延续性动词
Many grammar books in Chinese talk about this, but I still don't find any information about this on the Internet.
Could you please tell me more about this?
 
As we have pointed out, some of that information is misleading. I suggest that you do not rely on what these books tell you.
 
Could you please tell me more about this?

I think you should be aware that many verbs have different senses. So a single verb may have a sense where the action cannot occur across time and another sense where it can. This is the case with all of the verbs you list in post #5. Here are some examples of some of those verbs used with a durative sense:

Hurry! The film is starting!
Julie was buying a book.
The train is arriving at Platform 3.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top