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Since I moved to my parents' old house, I have been going to work by bus.

Is this tense correct? I am currently living in that house, so I believe a perfect tense is the right one, and I assume that it must be progressive since this is happening everyday...?

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  • Please take a look at this answer at english.stackexchange.com/a/6326/3306. The present progressive aspect is correct.
    – rajah9
    May 7, 2019 at 14:26
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    If you said "Since I moved... I had gone to work by bus" the hearer would infer that you may have stopped commuting by bus. What you wrote, "Since I moved... I have been going..." implies that you are continuing to commute by bus.
    – rajah9
    May 7, 2019 at 14:32
  • @JohnV "I have gone to work by bus" would also work, but would leave the continuous aspect ambiguous. Luckily that would be fairly clear from context (one usually goes to work repetitively and youhaven't mentioned a change of job, so...), but there are contexts where that would make a significant difference. ("Since I moved to the US, I have gone to New York" sounds like you may have done it once; "Since I moved to the US, I have been going to New York" suggests you make the trip regularly.) May 7, 2019 at 14:38

1 Answer 1

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Present perfect progressive tense refers to an action that has occurred in the past and is continuing in the present and/or will continue into the future. Assuming that is what you intend to convey, the sentence is correct as you have written it.

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  • For more insight into the perfect simple question, see english.stackexchange.com/questions/321023/….
    – rajah9
    May 7, 2019 at 14:29
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    Present perfect simple would read: "Since I moved to my parents' old house, I have gone to work by bus." It's technically correct, but without additional clarification, that is much less clear than the original statement. It implies that you used the bus at some point in that span, but without the sense of recency. You would use this tense to specify a specific number of times that you have used the bus ("Since I moved to my parents' old house, I have gone to work by bus five times"). Otherwise, to convey that is has been an ongoing and continued action, stick with the progressive. May 7, 2019 at 14:32
  • I assume you mean: "Since I moved to my parents' old house, I go to work by bus." Present simple tense does also imply a current activity. In fact, this connotes more of a constant condition that the first, implying that you always go to work by bus every single time. May 7, 2019 at 14:42
  • I'm confused, then. Present perfect tense uses the past participle of the verb; eg "I have gone by bus" (which we've already discussed). Using "go by" as a present tense noun in present perfect simple tense leads to nonsense: "I have go by." If I'm misunderstanding, could you give an example of the full sentence you're thinking of? May 7, 2019 at 14:50
  • @geekahedron May I ask one more thing? Last year I took the bus to school. Since then I've taken the train. Is that truly correct? Shouln't there be rather the progressive form in the other sentence?
    – John V
    May 7, 2019 at 15:18

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