Have Been/Has Been

[~Raindrop~]

:sl:

Somebody (she's not a native speaker) asked me what the difference is between has been and have been. And when you would use each.

I always thought:

He has
She has
I have
We have
They have

I tried to explain thoroughly without much success. Can somebody simplify these please?
And objects- how would you know what to use for them? :exhausted

[Soulja Girl]

:sl:

English is a funny language so they say :><:

:wa:

[أحمد]

:sl:

"Have been" is used in first or second person or third person plural; i.e. I have been, You have been, They have been.

"Has been" is used in third person singular only; i.e. He has been, She has been, It has been.

:wa:

[أحمد]

:sl:

Further explanation:

"Have been" is a phrase, consisting of the traditional plural of respect; this is always applied grammatically in first and second person form. Its use for third person plural is used for plural of number. This however can adapt the plural of respect to third person singular; in such case you would have to construct an implicit form, e.g. he would have been late for lesson.

"Has been" can also be used for collective plurals, e.g. this sequence of events has been known for its catastrophic effects on society.

:wa:

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[أحمد]

:sl:

:sl:

English is a funny language so they say :><:

:wa:

More than funny, its a weak language; it can be broken almost anywhere, and bridged almost anywhere.

:wa:

[manaal]

English grammar is very very confusing. It's very difficult t understand technical grammar doesn't it. I really see no point in learning stuff like auxiliary verbs, relative pronouns (and why it's different from a conjunction) etc, as long as I know that I'm using proper grammar. But of course as a result, anyone who reads my writing would immediately guess that i'm not a speaker..

[Cabdullahi]

You get some english people saying ''i has been''

[manaal]

Hmmmmm, sometimes I feel that Asians speak better English than some English people do.

[Cabdullahi]

Hmmmmm, sometimes I feel that Asians speak better English than some English people do.

are you wery sure? this is vat i vas thinking also...

i need to buy new microvawe

my uncle drives a wan

[Danah]

:sl:

English is a funny language so they say :><:
:wa:

Agreed!! sometimes you need to look and concentrate more on some words to realize how funny it is (=

:sl:
More than funny, its a weak language; it can be broken almost anywhere, and bridged almost anywhere.

:wa:

Agreed too! My father was studying English in University and the most thing that irritate him about English these days is telling him about the daily English that is recently used by teenagers and youngsters who invent shortcuts in (internet, SMS....etc) and play with the language as they wish

Way easier than Arabic and its grammar

[أحمد]

:sl:

You get some english people saying ''i has been''

Indeed, I has been known as the ninth letter of the English alphabet. ;D

:wa:

[أحمد]

:sl:

Agreed too! My father was studying English in University and the most thing that irritate him about English these days is telling him about the daily English that is recently used by teenagers and youngsters who invent shortcuts in (internet, SMS....etc) and play with the language as they wish

Way easier than Arabic and its grammar

My knowledge of English was very weak when I finished school. In fact, I didn't get anywhere with English; until I studied Arabic Grammar. I started with a handful of books and lessons with Dr. Ibrahim Surty. He uses grammatical referencing to describe words, phrases and sentence structures; I found this of great help to start studying English from books of grammar.

:wa:

[~Raindrop~]

are you wery sure? this is vat i vas thinking also...

i need to buy new microvawe

my uncle drives a wan

Now vat is wrong vith thet? His wan is a big Masaydee.

Seriously, though. English is crazy.

Way easier than Arabic and its grammar

That's soo true. I feel as though Arabic grammmar always has some little brothers and sisters popping out of nowhere. I can never completely say: I know ALL the rules of Sarf and Nahw. :exhausted

[manaal]

are you wery sure? this is vat i vas thinking also...

i need to buy new microvawe

my uncle drives a wan

We English don't speak English that good innit?

Ever watched an episode of Eastenders?

[Danah]

I can never completely say: I know ALL the rules of Sarf and Nahw. :exhausted

That is a very dangerous statement that even we Arabic native speakers can't say it easily :exhausted

you are talking about Nahw dearie, not only "she", "he" , and "it" :P

[أحمد]

:sl:

Furthermore, "had" is used for perfect past tense, while "have" is past and present OR present and future (imperfect tense).

It makes sense to say "two days ago _____
1. I had a toothache.
2. You had been playing hockey.
3. He had been given a promotion.
4. They had returned home.

It makes sense to say "since yesterday _____
1. I have been taking pain killers.
2. You have been revising for exams.

It does NOT make sense to say "two days ago _____
1. I have a toothache.
2. You have been playing hockey.
3. He have been given a promotion.
4. They have returned home.

It does NOT make sense to say "since yesterday _____
1. I had been taking pain killers.
2. You had been revising for exams.

:wa:

[Abdul-Raouf]

are you wery sure? this is vat i vas thinking also...

i need to buy new microvawe

my uncle drives a wan

Me..No English..Me..bad English.Me little little like.. you how?..you knowaa...you go ...my talk ..bad talk. :( ..yes..my country.. english ruled....but no english...but..more learn...more talk...congrats... me going..you type. Taa taa bye :)


I have heard.. ppl speaking in that^^^ flow too... :)

[manaal]

:sl:

Furthermore, "had" is used for perfect past tense, while "have" is past and present OR present and future (imperfect tense).

:wa:

Ahhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!! The grammar police is here!!

[أحمد]

:sl:

Ahhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!! The grammar police is here!!

"The grammar police is here" is used as a collective unit reference, while "the grammar police are here" is used for individuals belonging to the unit. For singular entity; either "policeman" or any such equivalent words may be used.

:wa:

[manaal]

^ I cannot, at this moment, think of a comeback good enough to counter what has been said above.

[Karl]

I think the best way to learn English is by repitition of phrases, basically like a baby learns. The big problem is that the brain soaks up knowledge the best and fastest while very young eg under five years of age. So unless you are very intelligent you will find it incredibly difficult to speak English well if you start learning after this.
English is a mongrel barbaric language that absorbs words from all over the world and the colonials have made it even worse eg yankees and southern rednecks, Australians etc. But to be fair a lot of the English people sound as though they have been labotomized. And the upper classes sound as if their tongue is paralized.
At the end of the day no one really cares how badly you speak English, only annoying academic prats.
The highest classes of England only use English as a casual language and to communicate to the plebians.

[أحمد]

:sl:

I think the best way to learn English is by repitition of phrases, basically like a baby learns. The big problem is that the brain soaks up knowledge the best and fastest while very young eg under five years of age. So unless you are very intelligent you will find it incredibly difficult to speak English well if you start learning after this.
English is a mongrel barbaric language that absorbs words from all over the world and the colonials have made it even worse eg yankees and southern rednecks, Australians etc. But to be fair a lot of the English people sound as though they have been labotomized. And the upper classes sound as if their tongue is paralized.
At the end of the day no one really cares how badly you speak English, only annoying academic prats.
The highest classes of England only use English as a casual language and to communicate to the plebians.

There's more assessment on written language than spoken in academia, and speaking isn't assessed on accent. Its understandable to ignore certain rules of grammar in speech, but writing isn't the same; even if its not "formal" writing. http://www.islamicboard.com/islamic-...ngy-innit.html

:wa:

['Abd Al-Maajid]

are you wery sure? this is vat i vas thinking also...

i need to buy new microvawe

my uncle drives a wan

LOL That was funny. But I have seen some native English speakers making these kind of silly spelling mistakes too...

Me..No English..Me..bad English.Me little little like.. you how?..you knowaa...you go ...my talk ..bad talk. :( ..yes..my country.. english ruled....but no english...but..more learn...more talk...congrats... me going..you type. Taa taa bye :)


I have heard.. ppl speaking in that^^^ flow too... :)

LOL this is funny too.


I am expecting zAk here...:p

[ابن آل مرة]

it gets annoying when people say " we was gona go" or " they was supposed to come"..sign of ignorance for people who are supposed to speak english properly.

[~Raindrop~]

^Agreed. It's hugely irritating. Almost as bad is, "I were sayin' to him, like, don't do that, like..." :heated: What's with all the likes?

[ابن آل مرة]

like totally^..

[ardianto]

Anyone here speaks English worse than me ?.

[czgibson]

Greetings,

it gets annoying when people say " we was gona go" or " they was supposed to come"..sign of ignorance for people who are supposed to speak english properly.

Not necessarily ignorance; it's more likely to be simply a habit. It's down to the dialect that people speak, and to some extent who they're speaking to. Southern Standard English is what has been erected as "the correct way" to speak English, but we have to accept it's not the only way. If people can communicate effectively to each other using dialect-based grammar then the language has still done its job. There comes a point where we could drive ourselves mad trying to persuade everybody to speak with standard grammar - it's simply not going to happen. On the other hand, if you're attending a job interview and your dialect is likely to affect your chances of success (for whatever reason), then you clearly have a choice to make.

What's with all the likes?

Yes, what is with all the "likes"? Since, as in the example you gave, it adds no meaning to the sentence, it must be a kind of conversational placeholder, used while the brain thinks of the next words to string together in the hope of reaching the full stop. Like "umm..." or "er...". I'm very proud of having successfully taught many people to recover from their addiction to "like"!

Peace

[marwen]

Anyone here speaks English worse than me ?.

Yes. I am speak english worser than your :X

['Abd Al-Maajid]

Anyone here speaks English worse than me ?.

Yes, I do....

[~Raindrop~]

Greetings,

Yes, what is with all the "likes"? Since, as in the example you gave, it adds no meaning to the sentence, it must be a kind of conversational placeholder, used while the brain thinks of the next words to string together in the hope of reaching the full stop. Like "umm..." or "er...". I'm very proud of having successfully taught many people to recover from their addiction to "like"!

Peace

How does one achieve such a seemingly unattainable goal, one wonders? *Posh nasal accent*

[Karl]

:sl:



There's more assessment on written language than spoken in academia, and speaking isn't assessed on accent. Its understandable to ignore certain rules of grammar in speech, but writing isn't the same; even if its not "formal" writing. http://www.islamicboard.com/islamic-...ngy-innit.html

:wa:

That's true, especially if you are dealing with art subjects, and law is the most fastidious about language, one must have perfect English skills to succeed in law. But science subjects are not so worried about the use of the English language as long as you can get your facts and answers across in an understandable manner. Strangely music is considered an art even though it relies on pure mathematics and acoustics, maybe the art is the ability of the composer and musician to move the audiance.

[ardianto]

Yes. I am speak english worser than your :X

Yes, I do....

At least I am not the worst. ;D

Okay, I have a question.

From my knowledge, "Have" is used for "I", "You", "We", "They".
"Has" is used for "He", "She", "It".

"Do/Don't" is used for "I', "You", "We", "They".
"Does/Doesn't" is used for "He", "She", "It".

But last year, a member from US, Podarok, written "Chinese doesn't have alphabets".
Is it correct ?. Why not "Don't have" or "Doesn't has" ?.

[Beardo]

^ It's sometimes easier if you break the contraction.

"Chinese does not have alphabets."
"Chinese do not have alphabets."

[~Raindrop~]

Could you say: "Chinese does not have an alphabet"? Just wondering...

[abdussattar]

You cannot say "an alphabet" as 'alphabet' is the set of 'a,b,c,d,....z'

'a' 'b' 'c' are individually called letters.

If you say 'Chinese' referring to the language, your statement can be correct if you remove the 'an'

And if you say 'Chinese' referring to the people of China, 'does' becomes 'do', and the 'an' should be removed.

[~Raindrop~]

Er...Right. Okay. Thank you.

*pretending to understand*.

['Abd Al-Maajid]

LOL We've got some good Students of English here on board...;D

[czgibson]

Greetings,

Despite the good efforts on display here, there has been some incorrect information in this thread. This is only natural, as English is a maddeningly difficult language to use. I'll try to clear up some of the points on this page:

But last year, a member from US, Podarok, written "Chinese doesn't have alphabets".
Is it correct ?. Why not "Don't have" or "Doesn't has" ?.

The sentence as you have given it is not strictly wrong, but it could be worded better to make the meaning clear.

If "Chinese" refers to a language, it would be better to write: "Chinese doesn't have an alphabet", to indicate that it doesn't use any alphabet at all. "Chinese" as a language is a noun - it is a thing. In sentences, single nouns behave like he, she or it. He, she or it are normally followed by "has" in the present tense. However, when the sentence contains a negative (in this case "doesn't"), we write "doesn't have", not "doesn't has".

If the intended meaning is "The Chinese people", then "don't have" is correct.

Could you say: "Chinese does not have an alphabet"? Just wondering...

Yes, this is correct.

You cannot say "an alphabet" as 'alphabet' is the set of 'a,b,c,d,....z'

The word "alphabet" is a noun, so it is perfectly OK to put "an" in front of it.

The alphabet that we use in English is called the Roman or Latin alphabet; there are many others. Greek, Arabic and Russian use different alphabets, for example.

Peace

[Muslim Woman]

Salaam

- how would you know what to use for them? :exhausted

here is links to improve English .


http://www.britishcouncil.org/kids.htm

In this site , u will find lessons in English , Arabic and Farsi .


http://go4english.com/



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