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What would you say? Are both sentences acceptable or is there only one possibility? Governments haven�t considered / haven�t been considering the
issue for a very long time.
With verbs that we don�t use in the continuous tense, there is no real
action or activity. Compare "to hear" and "to listen". "To hear" means
"to receive sound in your ears". There is no real action or activity by
you. We use "to hear" with simple tenses only. But "to listen" means
"to try to hear". You make an effort to hear. There is a kind of action
or activity. We can use "to listen" with simple or continuous tenses. EnglishClub.com.tip
I think you should use the present perfect simple here. The continuous sentence just doesn�t sound right.
If you changed the continuous sentence to this:
Governments haven�t been considering the issue for very long.
then it sounds fine but this of course changes the whole meaning of the original sentence.
I think that there would be nothing wrong at all with the original sentence if it was a positve sentence, the problem seems to be with it being negative.
Wow! I didn�t think that this question would be so controversial!! I would have used the PPS if my colleague hadn�t told me she had doubts about it. Thanks for all these different answers, including that of Bill () but I don�t know what to think now! lol!
Governments haven�t considered / haven�t been considering the
issue for a very long time.
The correct option is Governments haven�t considered the
issue for a very long time. The Government can�t be "considering" the issue for a very long time... It should be for example: The Governments haven�t been considering the issue as important..." - you cannot use a time expression here with "consider" it is indeed as alex pointed out - consider is a synonym here of "think".... We must always consider the context things are taken into not just the verb itself...
