MISTAKE MONDAY: **WE ARE FRIENDS SINCE...**
29 / 09 / 2014
MISTAKE MONDAY: **WE ARE FRIENDS SINCE...**: meaning and examples
Good morning everyone. I hope you had a great weekend.
As you know, on Mistake Monday the Daily Vitamin focuses on an error commonly made by English learners. Can you spot the mistake in the sentence below?
Sentence 1: **We are friends since 2010.**
This sentence uses a verb in the Simple Present tense ("we are"), but it also talks about the past (2010). The speaker wants to say that these people became friends in 2010 and are still friends today. The Present Perfect is a tense we use to talk about an event that began in the past and continues until today: activities in progress.
The sentence should read like sentence 2 below.
Sentence 2: We have been friends since 2010.
Here are some more examples of how to use the Present Perfect to talk about activities or situations in progress.
Example 1: I have worked for my company since 2003.
If you include the time the activity has been in progress, rather than the start of the activity, we use for instead of since.
Example 2: She has lived in this neighbourhood for forty years!
This is one of many ways we use the Present Perfect.
Be sure to join us tomorrow for Tense Tuesday, when we learn about a situation when it seems like you can break a grammar rule.
Have a great day!
As you know, on Mistake Monday the Daily Vitamin focuses on an error commonly made by English learners. Can you spot the mistake in the sentence below?
Sentence 1: **We are friends since 2010.**
This sentence uses a verb in the Simple Present tense ("we are"), but it also talks about the past (2010). The speaker wants to say that these people became friends in 2010 and are still friends today. The Present Perfect is a tense we use to talk about an event that began in the past and continues until today: activities in progress.
The sentence should read like sentence 2 below.
Sentence 2: We have been friends since 2010.
Here are some more examples of how to use the Present Perfect to talk about activities or situations in progress.
Example 1: I have worked for my company since 2003.
If you include the time the activity has been in progress, rather than the start of the activity, we use for instead of since.
Example 2: She has lived in this neighbourhood for forty years!
This is one of many ways we use the Present Perfect.
Be sure to join us tomorrow for Tense Tuesday, when we learn about a situation when it seems like you can break a grammar rule.
Have a great day!
