joham
Key Member
- Joined
- Oct 30, 2007
- Member Type
- Student or Learner
- Native Language
- Chinese
- Home Country
- China
- Current Location
- China
So that's what you've been up to while we've been away?
This sentence comes from LONGMAN CONTEMPORARY ENGLISH DICTIONARY second edition, (so). I'd like to know why the present perfect tense is used in the two clauses (Grammar books doesn't include this use in a while-clause). Could we simplify the tense without changing the original meaning? Like:
So that's what you've been up to while we were away?
Thank you very much.
(Thank dawoodusmani for pointing out my mistake. It was careless of me to miss out the 'been'.)
This sentence comes from LONGMAN CONTEMPORARY ENGLISH DICTIONARY second edition, (so). I'd like to know why the present perfect tense is used in the two clauses (Grammar books doesn't include this use in a while-clause). Could we simplify the tense without changing the original meaning? Like:
So that's what you've been up to while we were away?
Thank you very much.
(Thank dawoodusmani for pointing out my mistake. It was careless of me to miss out the 'been'.)
Last edited: