TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
> On Thu, 27 Sep 2012 04:21:19 -0400, Debbie Hemstreet <D_Hemstreet -at- rambam -dot- health -dot- gov -dot- il> wrote:
>
>> In a world where people want a minimum of words, why on earth would anyone use
>>
>> Past Perfect Simple Tense: The families have been using...
>>
>> Instead of
>>
>> Past Simple Tense: The families used...
>>
>> Throughout an entire article.
>
Well….first that's neither past perfect nor is it simple tense. It is in fact present perfect continuous tense.
Why would anyone use it? Maybe to signify that the action began at some unspecified time in the past and is still continuing at the time of writing. The simple past tense is used for actions that began at some specified time in the past and were completed at that time. A lot of native speakers understand very little about why they use the tenses they do, even though they tend to use them correctly and consistently (most of the time), even if unconsciously. ESL learners, who learn grammar by rule rather than imitation, tend to have a better grasp of their function and meaning.
If you want to know more about why people use present perfect continuous, have a look at
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Create and publish documentation through multiple channels with Doc-To-Help. Choose your authoring formats and get any output you may need.
Try Doc-To-Help, now with MS SharePoint integration, free for 30-days.
