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Ask for help > Help me please!
Help me please!
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Hanni9
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Help me please!
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I am rather confused with this sentence
You (walk) too fast. That �s why you are tired.
I wonder whether "HAVE BEEN WALKING" or "HAVE WALKED" is correct. Thanks
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18 Apr 2012
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funnyayhan
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"you have walked" is quite sensible, because he isn �t still walking. Only the effect of walking ,which is being, tired goes on. To your best regards |
18 Apr 2012
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douglas
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"You walk too fast." indicates that the person does this regularly (habitually). Their standard gait is fast--when they walk, they always walk at a fast pace. Using "you �ve walked too fast" isolates the the incident being refered to--it refers to only the the walk that just took place, it is not necessarily a habit. Douglas |
18 Apr 2012
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thaohanuvn
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One vote for "have walked"
Thao
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18 Apr 2012
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eawarwick
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That depends. If the action is completed you should use "have walked," but if it is still happening you should use "have been walking." |
18 Apr 2012
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yanogator
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Grammatically, "You have walked too fast" is correct, but doesn �t sound natural. It sounds like the person is referring to some vague time in the past. Remember that the continuous tenses emphasize the duration and the activity itself, so the best-sounding choices are "You have been walking too fast" or "You were walking too fast". Bruce |
18 Apr 2012
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foose1
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I agree with everybody but I say, if know the person always walks fast, I say, "you walk too fast, that is why you are tired." If I know the person doesn �t always walk fast and I witnessed it, I would say, "you walked too fast. That is why you are tired." Substitute work. I wouldn �t say, "you work too hard" to somebody that I know is lazy. I would say, "You worked hard today. That is why you are tired." |
18 Apr 2012
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ueslteacher
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I beg to differ (from everybody else, except Bruce; btw it seems that not every person who responded has actually read the post closely) In this very context "You � ve been walking too fast. That �s why you �re tired" is exactly the grammatically correct choice, as the second sentence states the visible result and that is the case when present perfect continuous is used.
We use the present perfect continuous tense to talk about an action that started in the past and stopped recently. There is usually a result now. - I �m tired [now] because I �ve been running.
- Why is the grass wet [now]? Has it been raining?
- You don �t understand [now] because you haven �t been listening.
Sophia
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18 Apr 2012
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Hanni9
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Actually, the answer is " HAVE BEEN WALKING", but in my opinion, I think " HAVE WALKED" is more reasonable. I am rather confused. Anyway, thank all for your help.
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18 Apr 2012
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ueslteacher
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Why would you be confused anyway? I �ve just explained this particular usage and, as you would do with any rule, remember it for future reference. Sophia |
18 Apr 2012
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cunliffe
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�You walk too fast, that �s why you �re tired. � is absolutely fine. It makes good sense. The person always walks too fast and that �s why they �re tired now. There �s not a problem with that, English is very versatile. If you change that to a past tense �you �ve been walking too fast � etc, then you change the nuance. |
18 Apr 2012
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