She's been saving up for months to afford it

EngLearner · Saturday at 4:43 PM

Suppose I bump into a friend on the street, and he asks me about what's new with Sarah. I say to him:

Last week, Sarah bought a new car. She's been saving up for months to afford it. Since getting it, she has driven to work every day. Yesterday, she took her friends for a ride. They had a great time together exploring the countryside. Sarah has never been so happy with a purchase before. She's even planned to go on a road trip soon. I hope she doesn't mind me joining her on her road trip.

I wrote the text above. Do the tenses and the wording I used sound right to you?

tedmc · Saturday at 8:35 PM

Just one comment:
She 's been saving up for it for months. Don't use "afford".

emsr2d2 · Sunday at 11:00 AM

EngLearner said:
Suppose I bump into a friend on the street, and he asks me ~~about~~ what's new with Sarah. I say to him:

Last week, Sarah bought a new car. ~~She's~~ She'd been saving up for it for months. ~~to afford it.~~ Since getting it, ~~she has~~ she's driven to work every day. Yesterday, she took her friends for a ride. They had a great time [together] exploring the countryside. ~~Sarah has~~ Sarah's/She's never been so happy with a purchase before. She's even ~~planned~~ planning to go on a road trip soon. I hope she doesn't mind me joining her. ~~on her road trip.~~

I wrote the text above. Do the tenses and the wording I used sound right to you?

Note my corrections above. I changed the tense at the start of the second sentence. The saving up took place before the buying (which, from the current time, took place in the past). I changed the present perfect to the present continuous in the penultimate sentence. For future plans, we tend to use the continuous to show that it hasn't happened and is still in the planning stage.
My other corrections are simply contractions. You used "She's" (the one I changed to "She'd") near the beginning so it's clear you know how to contract. Using those other contractions make the piece more natural. In general, in BrE at least, we contract whenever possible.

EngLearner · Sunday at 1:07 PM

1. Sarah bought a new car this morning. She'd been saving up for it for months. She's never been so happy with a purchase before. (spoken in the afternoon)

2. Sarah bought a new car five minutes ago. She'd been saving up for it for months. She's never been so happy with a purchase before.

3. Sarah's just bought a new car. She'd been saving up for it for months. She's never been so happy with a purchase before.

I've used different time markers in the above three examples. I wonder if that makes a difference. Does the past perfect continuous sound correct to you? The closer the purchase is to the present, the more tempted I am to use the present perfect continuous instead.

emsr2d2 · Sunday at 1:17 PM

EngLearner said:
1. Sarah bought a new car this morning. She'd been saving up for it for months. She's never been so happy with a purchase before. (~~spoken~~ Said in the afternoon of the same day.)

2. Sarah bought a new car five minutes ago. She'd been saving up for it for months. She's never been so happy with a purchase before.

3. Sarah's just bought a new car. She'd been saving up for it for months. She's never been so happy with a purchase before.
In this example, you'll hear native speakers use the present perfect continuous as well as the past perfect continuous. I'd use the latter but "just" puts the buying so close to the present that "She's been saving" wouldn't be entirely wrong.

I've used different time markers in the above three examples. I wonder if that makes a difference. Does the past perfect continuous sound correct to you? The closer the purchase is to the present, the more tempted I am to use the present perfect continuous instead.

jutfrank · Sunday at 9:29 PM

EngLearner said:
Last week, Sarah bought a new car.

The time phrase Last week makes it clear you're talking about the past, so follow with the past perfect continuous.

EngLearner said:
Sarah bought a new car this morning.

Here, it's most likely that this first sentence is about the past, so past perfect continuous is right, but it's conceivable too that this counts as talking about the present, especially if it's still morning, in which case the present perfect continuous would be the better choice.

EngLearner said:
Sarah's just bought a new car.

Here you're clearly talking about the present, not the past, so follow with the present perfect continuous.

EngLearner said:
Sarah bought a new car five minutes ago.

Ugh! This doesn't sound like real language at all. It's not easy to imagine a need to specify five minutes. Let me change it for you:

Sarah just bought a car.

Now we can imagine that the buying happened five minutes ago even though the speaker doesn't specify the number of minutes. It seems most likely that the relevance here is to the present, so use the present perfect continuous. Sarah is likely right there presently in the room with the speaker and listener.

EngLearner said:
The closer the purchase is to the present, the more tempted I am to use the present perfect continuous instead.

That's a good thing. As a rule, the closer in physical time, the more likely the speaker is talking about the mental present. Still, remember that in principle a week ago can be present time and a second ago can be past.

(By the way, since it's yet another question about tenses, this should be in the Ask a Teacher section.)

She's been saving up for months to afford it

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