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Grammar

 
 
Reply Mon 15 Jun, 2015 02:03 am
Can we say "I'm working all day" instead of "I've been working all day"?
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Type: Question • Score: 1 • Views: 398 • Replies: 7
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fresco
 
  1  
Reply Mon 15 Jun, 2015 02:44 am
@lenalekka,
No.
FBM
 
  1  
Reply Mon 15 Jun, 2015 03:47 am
@lenalekka,
lenalekka wrote:

Can we say "I'm working all day" instead of "I've been working all day"?


The simple present can be used to express one's plans:
A: What are you doing for the weekend?
B: I'm skiing with my cousins.


A: What are you doing on Friday?
B: I'm working all day.

Or maybe someone calls you today while you're working:
A: Hey, can you help me move a couch?
B: I can't. I'm working all day.

However, it does not mean "I've been working all day." The present perfect continuous only reports on the past leading up to the present, not so much for the future.
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FBM
 
  1  
Reply Mon 15 Jun, 2015 03:48 am
@fresco,
I need to work on conciseness, don't I? Brevity in writing is a virtue, I understand.
lenalekka
 
  1  
Reply Mon 15 Jun, 2015 04:00 am
@fresco,
thank you very much for your help
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lenalekka
 
  1  
Reply Mon 15 Jun, 2015 04:00 am
@fresco,
thank you very much
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fresco
 
  1  
Reply Mon 15 Jun, 2015 04:18 am
@FBM,
You are doing fine. "Duty" is a tends to be the master.
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Setanta
 
  1  
Reply Mon 15 Jun, 2015 04:41 am
@FBM,
There was an Air Force officer many years ago who used to conduct workshops about just that. He fold an excellent anecdote about Washington. Two Continental soldiers had been arrested in the act of raping a woman, and were tried. Their colonel sent a message to Washington to the effect:

Soldiers convicted, recommend execution.

Washington wrote, on the same scarp of paper: Concurred in.

The colonel sent back that same piece of paper with the message: Executed.
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