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Any sense - "I've haven't been skiing"

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Comfort level: She knows me to a comfort level | Listened to a lot...

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#16 (permalink) Sun May 07, 2006 16:46 pm Funny grammar bells

Yankee wrote:

So, I've been scratching my head as to why not. (Do you think head-scratching can repair an alarm? Wink

Wink

)

Alan wrote:

No alarm bells are ringing for me. Maybe the batteries need replacing.

Laughing

This is my second fit of the giggles today, thanks to both of you! Did I say giggles? A great belly laugh burst is more like it (and I swear I didn't even have wine for lunch!)!

Conchita
Language Coach

Joined: 26 Dec 2005
Posts: 2826
Location: Madrid, Spain

#17 (permalink) Tue May 09, 2006 20:25 pm What?

Hey...guys, I haven't realized yet what you are talking about...could someone explain me?? I mean, what Yankee have said is something about a sentence similar to mine...is it, right? I got confused, I don't know if my post took another path...let me know what you are sayong... Many thanks... _________________ Sergio M. "Life is too short to grieve in sorrow"

Serzige
I'm here quite often ;-)

Joined: 03 Apr 2006
Posts: 119

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#18 (permalink) Tue May 09, 2006 22:03 pm Any sense - "I've haven't been skiing"

Yankee wrote:

Here's a theory: Possibly the writer first wanted to say 'I've never been skiing...' and then changed his/her mind because the word 'never' also appears in the second half of the sentence. The writer then decided to write 'I haven't ever been skiing...' instead. Somehow both 'ever' and 'never' got deleted and 'have' ended up doubled. (A "cut and paste" problem?)

Hi Sergio

Yes, the conversation got a bit sidetracked due to my "theory" sentences (above). Sorry about that.

A question arose when I added the word 'never' to the sentence "I've been skiing". Conchita pointed out a tricky grammar point. And it wasn't until after Alan joined in that I fully understood the point Conchita wanted to make. Wink

Wink

So, I'll try to explain what we were talking about: (I hope it doesn't leave you even more confused.)

I've never gone skiing would be a present perfect simple form of "to go skiing".

I've never been skiing has exactly the same meaning. However, in this sentence the word "gone" was replaced by "been". The meaning of the word "be" can sometimes have the same meaning as "go". And that is the case here. This sentence is also present perfect simple.

However, with the word "been" in the second sentence, it looks like the present perfect continuous of "to ski". And that's what started the "confusion". Wink

Wink

Conchita mentioned not feeling comfortable using 'never' in a present perfect continuous sentence.
I normally wouldn't use 'never' with present perfect continuous either. But because the second sentence looked like present perfect continuous, it also "looked wrong".
I'm a native speaker, and the sentence didn't "feel" wrong and that's what got me scratching my head. I wanted to know why not.

In the end, I think we all agreed that "I've never been skiing" is NOT the present perfect continuous form of "to ski". But rather the simple present perfect of "to go skiing" with the word "go" replaced by "be".

Does that explanation help at all? I have a horrible feeling that the whole conversation is probably not any clearer for you now than before...

It might be better to just remember that "I've never been skiing" and "I've never gone skiing" mean the exactly the same thing. Laughing

Laughing

Amy

Yankee
I'm a Communicator ;-)

Joined: 16 Apr 2006
Posts: 8265
Location: USA

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