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Note: I am not a native speaker and know English mainly through reading the language. My feel for language is therefore more influenced by written than by spoken English, a confoundation that might...
Answer
#3: Attribution notice added
by
System
·
2019-12-08T04:14:29Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/17137 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision
by
System
·
2019-12-08T04:14:29Z (almost 5 years ago)
**_Note:_** I am not a native speaker _and know English mainly through_ reading _the language. My feel for language is therefore more influenced by written than by spoken English, a confoundation that might confuse some of the native speakers here, or a lack which might lead to Germanisms influencing me. You be the judge :-)_ To me the proper use is reflected in the following example: > Three months have passed since she has started to avoid me, and she has been avoiding me ever since. I would say that you use the past or present continuous for events that are ongoing in the present or had been ongoing until a specified end point or for a specified duration, and the infinitive for activities that you plan, think, want, start to do, that is that lie in the future of the thinking, starting and so on, but have not yet begun. Viz.: > Three months have passed since she had started to avoid me -- and given up and returned into my arms after that first attempt.
#1: Imported from external source
by
System
·
2015-05-09T19:13:15Z (over 9 years ago)
Original score: 1