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ESL forum >
Grammar and Linguistics > Present perfect - question
Present perfect - question
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denfer
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Present perfect - question
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Hello everybody,
could you please help me with the following questions?
How long haven�t you been to the dentist�s ?
How long have you not been to the dentist�s ?
are both of them Ok ?
Thank you
Denisa |
14 May 2010
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Apodo
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But a more natural way would be:
How long since you �ve been to the dentist �s?
I wouldn�t use have not been after �How long...� in this context.
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14 May 2010
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Riley1.5
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A completely different expression
"How long is it since you went to the dentist?"
would be far more natural. I don �t think it is helpful to force expressions into a particular tense just for the sake of practicing tense formation when it produces artificial expressions. There are plenty of other situations you can use in which the present perfect would be used by native speakers. |
14 May 2010
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denfer
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Both of the sentences seemed a bit awkward so now I know why.
Thank you very much :-)
Denisa |
14 May 2010
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colibrita
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Other options: when did you last go to the dentist? when was the last time you went to the dentist?
Depends also who �s asking. If it �s the dentist asking then "how long (has it been) since you saw a dentist?" would work better.
HTH!
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14 May 2010
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