An online instructor was asked by a student at the end of their conversation:
Which of the following is correct and why?
- It was nice talking to you.
- It has been nice talking to you.
Is talking a gerund here?
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At the end of an online conversation, both It was nice talking to you (past simple) and It has been nice talking to you (present perfect) are correct. However, if the statement is made some time after the conversation ended, then it would be more usual to use the past simple. Talking functions as a gerund in your examples. You could equally say:
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To build on Shoe's answer, It was nice talking to you has another connotation ("It was nice talking to you until x happened...") which could be problematic in an online setting, since it's difficult to detect emotional meaning in text. (As an aside, I suspect this is why comedians are funnier talking to a live audience than writing something in a book.) If the student meant to imply that things went sour somewhere along the way, it would be wise to add an ellipsis or to use some form of markup language. |
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