English Teacher? Please Help!

tomgalwayjuly

Hi,

I have been asked to explain the difference between the following sentences in relation to 'Meaning and Use'... Can someone please point me in the right direction so I know what to do with the rest of the questions?

1. (a) When Sarah arrived home. her husband was washing the dishes.
(b) When Sarah arrived home, her husband had washed the dishes.

2. (a) He's been gone to the pub.
(b) He's gone to the pub.

Thanks!

implausible

Is this your homework?

tomgalwayjuly

Hi implausible, thanks for getting back to me :-) No, I am assisting 2 foreign nationals living nearby in how to tackle meaning and use. Their level is very poor so I would like to give them a hand. This is just 2 examples of 20 Q's.

Powerhouse

1. (a) When Sarah arrived home. her husband was washing the dishes.


The first part is the Past Simple tense. It simply indicates something that has already happened. The second clause includes the form of the verb 'was washing' which is Past Continuous, identifiable with the use of 'was' with the 'ing' from of the verb (or gerund if you want to give it it's technical term). In this case the husband is washing the dishes at the time indicated by the use of the Past Continuous rather than the Past Simple 'he washed the dishes'.


(b) When Sarah arrived home, her husband had washed the dishes.

The first clause of this is the same as in the previous example obviously, but the second part is the Past Perfect tense (some sources use 'aspect' to describe this but we'll go with 'tense'). The Past Perfect is the Past in the Past - in this case when she arrived home (past simple) the dishes were already done. They were done at some indeterminate point in the past and the Past Perfect expresses this. It is easily recognisable as it is constructed using 'had' and the past participle of the verb. Another example would be 'Mary told me (past simple) that John had gone already' (past perfect).


2. (a) He's been gone to the pub.

This is Present Perfect Continuous. The 'has gone' makes it Present Perfect, and the 'been' makes it Continuous. It is used to report information about something that began in the past but it still relevant and accurate. For example, the state of Northern Ireland has been in existence since the 1920s (it is still there), as opposed to the Habsburg empire had been in existence for nearly 400 years when it collapsed after WW1. (It is now over but I am indicating with reference to a point in the past - WW1 - how long it existed)

(b) He's gone to the pub.

This is Present Simple. It is just stating that he is gone to the pub right now and making no reference to how long that has been the case.

tomgalwayjuly

Hi Powerhouse, thanks very much for taking the time to help me :-)

Powerhouse

tomgalwayjuly wrote: »

Hi Powerhouse, thanks very much for taking the time to help me :-)

You're very welcome. I hope it's clear enough.

Powerhouse

Actually, tomgalwayjuly, I revisited that as I overlooked something in the first part. Hope that's okay.

tomgalwayjuly

Hi Powerhouse, which part? Another one which is causing confusion is:

(a) My brother, who is in the army, has just moved to Dublin.
(b) My brother who is in the army has just moved to Dublin.

I fail to see how the commas can divide these sentences into different verb forms, can you identify it?

Thanks again!

ejak1

a. In the first sentence, the speaker has only one brother, who happens to be in the army.
b.In the second sentence, the speaker is talking about his brother who is in the army, not the other brothers he/she may have.

The commas affect the meaning of the sentence, not the verbs used.
In sentence a, the information between the commas is non-essential info. The speaker has only one brother, who happens to be in the army
In sentence b, the 'who is in the army' is essential information to distinguish which brother the speaker is referring to. (i.e the one in the army, not the one in the police for example

tomgalwayjuly

Hi ejak1, thanks for your reply that makes it very clear :-) Am I right in saying that both sentences are in the Present Perfect Continuous?

Powerhouse

tomgalwayjuly wrote: »

Hi Powerhouse, which part? Another one which is causing confusion is:

(a) My brother, who is in the army, has just moved to Dublin.
(b) My brother who is in the army has just moved to Dublin.

I fail to see how the commas can divide these sentences into different verb forms, can you identify it?

Thanks again!

I wrote some extra on the first part of the earlier post.

Punctuation marks make no difference to verb forms. They affect the reading of a sentence and its emphasis and clarity. Their use is not universally agreed upon. And some pedants use them unecessarily.

The interpretation suggested by the other poster makes sense, though I'd have to say, as a native speaker, I would no essential difference between the two phrases.

If there is an exercise which looks for a difference then the one suggested seems reasonable. In practical usage such difference is negligible to non-existent I would think but the other suggestion certainly reads true to my mind anyway.

ejak1

The first sentence has a Defining relative clause. See the examples below

Look at this sentence:
• The woman who lives next door works in a bank.

‘who lives next door’ is a defining relative clause. It tells us which woman we are talking about.

Look at some more examples:
•Look out! There’s the dog that bit my brother.
•The film that we saw last week was awful.
•This is the skirt I bought in the sales.

The second sentence has a non-defining relative clause:
Non-defining relative clauses

Look at this sentence.
• My grandfather, who is 87, goes swimming every day.

‘who is 87’ is a non-defining relative clause. It adds extra information to the sentence. If we take the clause out of the sentence, the sentence still has the same meaning.

Look at some more examples.
•The film, which stars Tom Carter, is released on Friday.
•My eldest son, whose work takes him all over the world, is in Hong Kong at the moment.
•The car, which can reach speeds of over 300km/ph, costs over $500,000.

Non-defining relative clauses add extra information to sentences.


Source is from the British council learn english site. I've used this when teaching TEFL in the past to advanced learners.

Also the tenses in both the sentences you gave are in the present simple tense. 'who is in the army'. The second part' has just moved to Dublin is the present perfect. Has gone, has moved, has been, He's gone to the pub= he has gone to the pub, which is the present perfect.
The present perfect continuous would be 'he has been living here for 10 years' He has been studying for five hours. Continuous tenses always take the -ing form. eg. I am living is the present continuous, I have been living is the present perfect continuous, I will be living is the Future continuous etc. Hope this is ok.

tomgalwayjuly

Thanks guys great help