Monday, 7 December 2015

grammar - Is it correct to use IN with the Present Perfect Continuous?

This is ugly stuff!




1) He has been reading this book in the last two days. (I think it doesn't mean )




This IS ok but I think that "---during the last 2 days." would be slightly more elegant although I would be perfectly happy with:



"In the last two days he has been reading this book."



which seems, to me, a more natural phrasing.




2) He has been reading this book for the last two days.




Well, y-e-s - although I'm not entirely sure that I agree with WS2's comment:





Means that he has been reading the book (not necessarily continuously) for the last two days.





and finally we come to:




3) He has been reading this book for three times in the last two days.




Horrible!



Again this is the actual construction of the sentence:



"Three times, in the last two days, he has been reading this book"



would be fine.





Some people say IN shouldn't be used with PPC others say it's OK.





I am sure that the purists are correct, but stuff 'em, as long as you can make it look good & read well. It's OK.



Hope this helps



dmk

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