question

[Mohamed Z]

hello dear
I have this sentences
She's broken her leg.
can I use How to make question?
best regards

 

[TheParser]

hello dear
I have this sentences
She's broken her leg.
can I use How to make question?
best regards

***NOT A TEACHER***

good morning.

(1) She has broken her leg.

(2) Has she broken her leg?

(3) How has she broken her leg?

Thank you.

 

[Raymott]

hello dear
I have this sentences
She's broken her leg.
can I use How to make question?
best regards

If someone has broken their leg, the commonest way to phrase this question is:
How did you break your leg?

 

[euncu]

If someone has broken their leg, the commonest way to phrase this question is:
How did you break your leg?

But shouldn't we use present perfect tense for a leg still broken?

 

[Raymott]

But shouldn't we use present perfect tense for a leg still broken?

No. I can see why you might think that, though, and it looks like an anomaly.

If someone dies, you say "How did he die?" By your argument you should say "How has he died?" since he's still dead. But we don't say that.
"How have you done it?" is a very uncommon question.
"How did you do it?" is the we say it.

I'm sure TheParser would agree. What he has given is a direct answer to the grammatical question of how to use "How" with "She has broken her leg". But in most cases, we wouldn't do that.

To complicate matters (or perhaps to further explain), your argument does hold in the following:

1A: Where have you broken it?
1B: Just above the ankle.

2A: Where did you break it?
2B: On BreakLeg Mountain. [OR Just above the ankle.]

1 refers to the ongoingness of the break. 2 (generally) refers to the act.

 

[euncu]

Thank you for your reply. Yes, I wouldn't use present perfect tense for dying but it is about the state of that verb denotes since to die already implies an end.(and the same goes for similar verbs). But my confusion still continues.

 

[bhaisahab]

Thank you for your reply. Yes, I wouldn't use present perfect tense for dying but it is about the state of that verb denotes since to die already implies an end.(and the same goes for similar verbs). But my confusion still continues.

I think the answer here is that the act of you breaking your leg is past, so we ask about a specific instant in time in the past when we say "How did you break your leg?" You could ask, but nobody would, "How has your leg come to be broken?"

 

[euncu]

We have been discussing this matter with a friend of mine who is an English teacher. On some examples, we both have been confused. Some of those examples are the followings;

1)
Atatürk (died1938) has founded the Turkish Republic .
Present perfect tense(ppt) is used because The republic's been continuing to exist.

or

Atatürk founded the Turkish Republic .
Past simple(ps) is used because the action of founding completed (in 1923)

2) He has come (he is here)

He came (He is not here)

He came (He's here, ps is used here because the act of coming is completed and what's continuing for him is "to be here"-an other verb)


3)This one is my friend's explanation for a third example.
I lost my wallet (I know that my wallet is lost-I still don't have it)
I've lost my wallet (I have just noticed that my wallet is lost-I still don't have it)

I usually good at using ppt when it comes to experiences, specified time and continuing periods. It is also easy in tests when the tips such as yet, since, for, etc. are given. What confuses my mind about ppt is mainly focused on the continuing effect of a verb that completed in the past as it is given in the examples. I'll be grateful if you help me clarifying my mind.

Thanks for your replies in advance.

 

[mmasny]

I bhaisahab's reply makes things clear in this case. It's just that when you're asking about the way of breaking the leg, you're thinking about that past event. How it happened then.

 

[Mohamed Z]

hello dear
I have this sentences
She's broken her leg.
can I use How to make question?
best regards

dear all
thank you very much for your useful contributions
best regards