Barry
Did you finish the book which you have been... /The concert which you are going to.../Oscar(s) prize 1. a. Did you finish the book which you have been reading since last year? b. Did you finish the book which you had been reading since last year? c. Do you finish the book which you have been reading since last year? →Are they all correct? Which one is better? What are the differences between them? 2. The concert which you are going to will be canceled. →Is this sentence correct? 3. The movie which you saw last week won three Oscars prizes. →Is this sentence correct? How about “three Oscar prizes”? Thanks!
May 10, 2016 4:54 PM
Answers · 6
1
1. A is correct, although as I mentioned in your other question it sounds more natural to omit the "which" here, and just say: "Did you finish the book you have been reading since last year?" "The book which you have been reading" is perfectly fine English, it just isn't something we would normally say. But the reason "have been reading since last year" is correct is because "have been" suggests continuous action, similar to a verb that ends with '-ing'. The person you're speaking to was reading the book last year and and you don't know if he's stopped reading it or not, so until he says he's stopped you can assume he's still reading it. So you should ask him as though he's still reading it. "Had" is a past tense word, and so "had been reading" would mean he was reading it, but isn't anymore, and since you're asking if he's finished reading it you probably don't know that yet. When you start a question with "Do you" you're asking the person if they do something often, such as "do you sing?", "do you smoke?", "do you drink?". If you ask someone "Do you finish the book you have been reading since last year?" it sounds a bit like you're asking if they regularly finish it. 2. Kind of, but I don't think that sentence means what you meant it to. If someone's going to a concert and you think it's going to be cancelled although no-one has said it will be yet, you can say "The concert you're going to will be cancelled". This means you assume that the show is going to be cancelled. I think what you meant to say though was "The concert you're going to has been cancelled", as this means that the people in charge of the concert have already made the decision to cancel it. "Cancelling" the concert is the decision to stop it. Once the decision has been made to cancel it, you can say "The concert you're going to isn't going to happen". (I've reached the character limit so I'll answer the third one in another answer)
May 11, 2016
1
1. Did you finish the book which you've been reading since last year? Have you finished reading the book which you've been reading since last year ? 2. The concert which you are going to will be cancelled. That's fine. 3. The movie which you saw last week won three Oscar awards. Or the movie you seen last week was nominated for three different Oscar awards, which they won all three.
May 11, 2016
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