Present perfect continous I got a question from my today's class. There's a sentence said, 'She has been getting better during the summer.' which I found that I hardly agreed with this. In my opinion,

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Present perfect continous I got a question from my today's class. There's a sentence said, 'She has been getting better during the summer.' which I found that I hardly agreed with this. In my opinion, all the present perfect should be an impact or a connection as the speaker believed from the past to the moment it is mentioned. 'During the summer' is a particular period of time which also unidentified without other details. However, two of my teachers that I consulted gave me the same answer, which they thought the sentence was correct. No matter you think this sentence is grammatically correct or not, please leave your comments.Thanks for your opinions on this question. Actually, that's what I was going to say, which it should be considered a correct way to express if it happens in the summer. But the thing is, this sentence came out from a grammar practice which letting us use some of the events to connect with a time phrase. I couldn't agree this was a fairly correct answer.

Jul 12, 2015 11:02 AM

Answers · 9

I agree with you and disagree with your teachers. "during the summer" does not adequate express a period time which includes the past and the present. "During + time word/phrase" is normally used with the simple past. A better preposition would be "throughout". The use of "during" here is lazy, in my opinion, but I can well imagine people saying it or using it when writing quickly.

July 12, 2015

This is a perfectly normal thing to say if the subject had started to get better sometime in the summer AND when the statement was made it was still the same summer. If it is now autumn, winter, or even spring then the sentence would be incorrect.

July 12, 2015

For me, it would only be a normal thing to say if it were still summer.

July 12, 2015

Thanks for your opinions on this question. Actually, that's what I was going to say, which it should be considered a correct way to express if it happens in the summer. But the thing is, this sentence came out from a grammar practice which letting us use some of the events to connect with a time phrase. I couldn't agree this was a fairly correct answer.

July 13, 2015

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