[General] I spent half the summer vacation in this mountain....

[Silverobama]

Hi.

I wonder if my sentence is natural.

Context: I am now in a mountain resort and have stayed here for more than 40 days, half of the summer vacation. I use my spare time to pick up rubbish; I do it almost every day. Today I filled another seven bags. I used almost all my plastic bags. I wrote a sentence when posting my picking rubbish online which goes like "I spent half the summer vacation in this mountain resort and picked half of its rubbish". I want to make "two halfs" in my sentence. Of course, I don't necessary need to use that but because I said it in Chinese first, I want to keep it in English.

Please enlighten me and help me with my italic sentence. The following is a picture I took.

 

[teechar]

"I've spent half the summer vacation in this mountain resort and picked half of [STRIKE]its[/STRIKE] the rubbish there".

Try that.

I want to make "two halfs" in my sentence.

What does that mean? Note also the correct spelling of halves.

 

[Silverobama]

"I've spent half the summer vacation in this mountain resort and picked half of the rubbish there".

When I posted the photos online, I was still in the mountain resort. (Now I'm still here.) I wonder if you can tell me why you used "there" in the sentence? Will the following one be clearer?

I've spent half the summer vacation in this mountain resort and picked half of the rubbish here.

I also wonder if both "I've spent" and "spent" are correct.

What does that mean? Note also the correct spelling of halves.

I used two "half" in my sentence. :-D

 

[emsr2d2]

Do you mean you want to use "half" twice?

 

[Silverobama]

Do you mean you want to use "half" twice?

Yes.

 

[teechar]

I've spent half the summer vacation in this mountain resort and picked half of the rubbish here.

Yes, that works if you're still in the resort.

I also wonder if both "I've spent" and "spent" are correct.

Use the present perfect because you are still there.

 

[tedmc]

I think the past perfect is appropriate regardless of whether you are there or not.

 

[Silverobama]

"I've spent half the summer vacation in this mountain resort and picked half of the rubbish there".

Would this one be okay in any context? I can't think of one.

I've spent half the summer vacation in this mountain resort and I've picked half of the rubbish here.

I wonder if the red "I've" is understood in the sentence?

 

[tedmc]

Obviously you would also need to change "this" to "the" for the sentence to make sense.

 

[teechar]

Would this one be okay in any context? I can't think of one.

How about, for example, if you're just outside the resort and saying that?

I wonder if the red "I've" is understood in the sentence?

Often when we give details after using the present perfect, we use the past simple.

 

[teechar]

I think the past perfect is appropriate regardless of whether you are there or not.

Not if the action is well in the past and has no relevance to the present.