[General] Of late he is getting

suniljain · Nov 18, 2015

Of late he is getting late on regular basis.

Is this sentence correct?

MikeNewYork · Nov 18, 2015

It is a bit strange with two uses of "late" in it.

"These days, he is late on a regular basis."

Matthew Wai · Nov 18, 2015

'Lately, he has been late on a regular basis.'

MikeNewYork · Nov 18, 2015

I thought of "lately", but that has a problem similar to "of late".

suniljain · Nov 18, 2015

Of late, he is complaining on regular basis.

Is this correct?

MikeNewYork · Nov 18, 2015

Matthew Wai · Nov 18, 2015

suniljain said:
Of late, he is complaining on regular basis.

Why is it correct to use the present continuous as 'of late' refers to the past?

MikeNewYork · Nov 18, 2015

"Of late" has the meaning of recently.

Matthew Wai · Nov 18, 2015

'Recently' means 'not long ago'.
Does 'ago' refer to the past or the present?

MikeNewYork · Nov 18, 2015

For me, "recently" started in the recent past and has continued into the present.

Matthew Wai · Nov 18, 2015

If so, I would say 'has been complaining' instead of 'is complaining' in the OP's sentence.

MikeNewYork · Nov 18, 2015

That works.

suniljain · Nov 19, 2015

MikeNewYork said:
It is a bit strange with two uses of "late" in it.

"These days, he is late on a regular basis."

Can I write: These days, he is getting late on regular basis.

Does it make any difference if I use "getting"?

MikeNewYork · Nov 19, 2015

"Getting" doesn't work for me.

Matthew Wai · Nov 19, 2015

suniljain said:
he is getting late

It sounds to me as if he was going to be late.

MikeNewYork · Nov 19, 2015

But the sentence is not correct.

suniljain · Nov 19, 2015

He is getting late

Matthew Wai said:
It sounds to me as if he was going to be late.

Why "was", Isn't the sentence present continuous tense.

Matthew Wai · Nov 19, 2015

'Was' is the past subjunctive here, which refers to the present instead of the past.

suniljain · Nov 20, 2015

Matthew Wai said:
'Was' is the past subjunctive here, which refers to the present instead of the past.

Can you please help me understand the difference between the following:

He is getting late on regular basis.
He is late on regular basis.

Matthew Wai · Nov 20, 2015

I take 'is getting late' to mean 'is going to be late', which does not work with 'on a regular basis'.