Question

Atualizado em 15 ago 2018

lukasz

4 dez 2016

Polaco

Inglês (EUA)
Inglês (RU)

Pergunta sobre Inglês (EUA)

...have occupied since the earliest times or ...have been occupying since the earliest times?

Respostas

Porunga

4 dez 2016

Inglês (EUA)

"Have occupied" works the best.

katiem415

4 dez 2016

Inglês (EUA)

In formal writing it's best to avoid "be ___ing" unless necessary

lukasz

4 dez 2016

Polaco

Hmm...I thought that in such situations present perfect continuous should be used, unless the verb is non-continuous; but "to occupy" is a normal verb.

Deleted user

4 dez 2016

@katiem415 I don't see why.

"The government has been working diligently to fix the issue."

There's nothing informal or wrong about this sentence.

@lukasz It's probably because once you occupy something, it's yours. You are no longer putting in effort to further occupy the area, you just own it (even if it's temporarily).

"We have occupied the country for the past several months, but the war doesn't end."

Once the country has been occupied, there's nothing more to occupy, and therefore, it's finished. Since nothing more can be done to occupy it, it might sound awkward to use the progressive tense since the action is already finished (so you use the perfect tense). :)

lukasz

5 dez 2016

Polaco

@Vicinian hmm, that would make sense, but "to occupy" can mean just to live, can't it? For example, I have occupied the apartment for a year.

Deleted user

5 dez 2016

@lukasz Yes, and that still follows the same idea! Once you occupy someplace and you start living in it, there's nothing more to occupy, so it might sound awkward to use the progressive tense! Instead, just use the perfect tense like you did in your sentence :)

"I have occupied the apartment for a year."

Although, in that particular sentence, "occupied" might sound a little bit awkward too... Try: "I have lived in this apartment for a year now." This sounds very natural :)

If you DO want to say that you are currently "occupying" a home, you would probably use "moving into"!

"We are currently moving into our new home."

Otherwise, "occupying" is almost always used in a military sense!

"The Russian army has been occupying Crimea without facing any opposition." - still happening

In this sentence, the Russian army has still not finished occupying Crimea! If they have finished, you would instead say:

"The Russian army has occupied Crimea without facing any opposition." - happened

Like this! :)

lukasz

5 dez 2016

Polaco

It's weird a little to me - you're saying that occupying is like conquering; in order to live some place you have to first put some effort to it.

"To live" I can kind of understand this is in simple perfect tense, because "to live" is a non-continuous verb, I guess.

Deleted user

5 dez 2016

@lukasz In modern usage, "to occupy" is mostly used in a military sense! Especially "occupying", since we already have two much more common words for this: "to live/to move into"

"We are occupying our new home." -> this would never be said by a native English speaker. Instead, say, "We are currently moving into our new home. "

"We are occupying a small home in the city." -> this would never be said. Instead, say, "We live in a small home in the city."

The simple present tense is more used this way, however:

"She occupies a small home to the north."

However, you would never hear this type of sentence in conversation. It's only found in books.

Besides that, "to occupy" is almost always used for war, meaning to siege, conquer, or settle someplace. :)

lukasz

5 dez 2016

Polaco

@Vicinian ok, but maybe "to occupy" as well as "to live" are just non-continuous verbs, and this is the reason why they are used in non-continuous forms.
I've been searching for it, and I haven't found anywhere that they are non-continuous, but the definition goes like this "non-continuous verbs are those whose action we cannot see anyone doing", so that would fit, I guess.(you cannot really see someone living, for instance).

Deleted user

5 dez 2016

@lukasz No, they can both be used in the continuous tense :)

Like in my previous sentence:
"The Russian army has been occupying Crimea while facing no opposition."
This is a situation where you would use the continuous tense for "to occupy"!

"These days, she have been living in a small shack by the beach."
This is an example of "to live" being used in the continuous tense!

The only issue here is the cultural meanings "to occupy" has! Because it means some things in some contexts and other things in other contexts, it might sound good in some sentences and bad in others :) It's not an issue with the continuous tense itself, just an issue with nuance!

lukasz

5 dez 2016

Polaco

People keep saying that English is an easy language, but I think English is very convoluted when we talk about tenses.
I've already been learning English for over three years, and I still cannot fully understand the use of, especially, perfect tenses in this language - it seems to me there are no rules that govern them.

Recently I was discussing present perfect simple vs present perfect continuous. One of the conclusions of that discussion was that when we use present perfect continuous without a time marker (as in your example with the_Russian army) the action is finished.
I was happy to know this, and now you're saying to me that the Russian army in your sentence hasn't finished occupying Crimea. I don't know...

Deleted user

5 dez 2016

@lukasz No it's not finished! Who told you that? The whole reason for using the continuous and present tense is to signal that the action is still happening :) Do you have examples where the action has been finished?

The present perfect continuous means that the action has already been happening for a while and is still happening currently. :)

lukasz

5 dez 2016

Polaco

Someone here on hinative told me that.

Examples:
A: What's happened, why are you panting?
B: I've been running (finished action)

Another example:
I've been living in New York, but now I'm moving to Chicago. (The person no longer lives in New York)

Another one:
A: Why don't you want to see me again?
B: I've been thinking about it - you have no job, no money, no apartment. How could I live with someone like you? (She has just broken up with him, so she no longer thinks about it)