"He has been killed"? I was watching the movie "The Terminal" yesterday and I listen to this phrase: "We're also hearing that the Vice President has been killed". I thought that in this case, the corr

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Alexandre

"He has been killed"? I was watching the movie "The Terminal" yesterday and I listen to this phrase: "We're also hearing that the Vice President has been killed". I thought that in this case, the correct way was "We're also hearing that the Vice President was killed" (finish action in the past). I'm think that "has been" was used because the person wasn't sure about the murder.

2 de sep. de 2015 20:05

Respuestas · 7

"Has been killed"=Was killed sometime in the pst but that time is not being mentioned or referenced. The act of his death is being referenced from the present. "Where's the vice-president?" "He has been killed unfortunately." "He was killed"=Was killed at a certain time in the past THAT IS BEING REFERENCED. Often used for telling stories or recounting multiple past events that happened together. For example: "The vice-president was killed on January 5, 2008." "The vice-president was killed yesterday." "The vice-president met with his advisers. He then walked outside and was killed."

2 de septiembre de 2015

I would say 'the vice president was killed' is more distant past, as in you could be talking about something that happened 100 years ago. 'He has been killed' is much more recent.

2 de septiembre de 2015

We use present perfect to report news. This means that a) no time reference (ie. "when") is needed, and b) the information is relevant to the moment. By using past simple, it's neither news nor relevant.

2 de septiembre de 2015

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