Question
Updated on
8 Aug 2022
- English (US)
-
English (US)
Question about English (US)
What is the difference between I have been competing them as fast I can and I was completing them as fast as I could ?Feel free to just provide example sentences.
What is the difference between I have been competing them as fast I can and I was completing them as fast as I could ?Feel free to just provide example sentences.
Answers
8 Aug 2022
Featured answer
- English (US)
The differences between these expressions are very subtle.
“I have been completing them as fast as I can” is the immediate past, and suggests that whatever you are completing has not been finished yet and is still in process.
Ex -
Student - “Have you finished correcting all of the tests yet?”
Teacher - “I’ve been completing (correcting) them as fast as I can, but I still have a few left”.
“I was completing them as fast as I could” suggests that you are looking back to the time in the past when you were completing the task, and describing that time. Because “could” is used here, we don’t know if the task is finished or unfinished unless other markers of time are added to the sentence as well.
Student - “Have you finished correcting all the tests yet?”
Teacher - “Yes, last night I didn’t have much time so I was completing them as fast as I could. I’ll hand them back to the class later today”.
Or the teacher could also respond:
Teacher - “No, last night I was completing them as fast as I could but I ran out of time”.
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- English (US)
The differences between these expressions are very subtle.
“I have been completing them as fast as I can” is the immediate past, and suggests that whatever you are completing has not been finished yet and is still in process.
Ex -
Student - “Have you finished correcting all of the tests yet?”
Teacher - “I’ve been completing (correcting) them as fast as I can, but I still have a few left”.
“I was completing them as fast as I could” suggests that you are looking back to the time in the past when you were completing the task, and describing that time. Because “could” is used here, we don’t know if the task is finished or unfinished unless other markers of time are added to the sentence as well.
Student - “Have you finished correcting all the tests yet?”
Teacher - “Yes, last night I didn’t have much time so I was completing them as fast as I could. I’ll hand them back to the class later today”.
Or the teacher could also respond:
Teacher - “No, last night I was completing them as fast as I could but I ran out of time”.
Was this answer helpful?
- English (US)
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