Who is guilty of have had not that it warrants a thread

[Silvine]

Not to be too anal, but instead of saying the often annoying 'I have had <a cough>'

try remaining in the progressive context of the sentence by saying;

'I have coughed for 8 months'

or

'I am coughing close to a year'

Because, seriously, 'have' and 'had' should never be seen together.

Who is guilty of this laxatating pleasure?

[sokkar]

what's wrong with the present perfect?

[omar]

why does it matter? does God kill a kitten every time i speak improper english? it gets the point across, & that's the whole point of language - communication

so i think that's just fucking stupid

[bort]

Originally Posted by omar

why does it matter? does God kill a kitten every time i speak improper english?

YES. You should know that by now.

"I am coughing close to a year" sounds absolutely terrible. I hope you never use that sentence in real life. "I have been coughing close to a year", please. It is perfectly okay to use passive voice on occasions.
"I have coughed for 8 months" also sounds very hard to squeeze into a context where that would be the most logical way of expressing yourself. Basically that is best used as the answer to such vital questions as "have you coughed for eight months?" or "what have you done for eight months?".

For numbers ten and under, you really should spell the word, not enter the digits.

[Silvine]

Originally Posted by bort

YES. You should know that by now.

"I am coughing close to a year" sounds absolutely terrible. I hope you never use that sentence in real life. "I have been coughing close to a year", please. It is perfectly okay to use passive voice on occasions.
"I have coughed for 8 months" also sounds very hard to squeeze into a context where that would be the most logical way of expressing yourself. Basically that is best used as the answer to such vital questions as "have you coughed for eight months?" or "what have you done for eight months?".

For numbers ten and under, you really should spell the word, not enter the digits.

Writing the number in a textual format rather than a digital format is preference over substance. Rather, I have a tendency to hate when people write "you're" over "you are" and so forth. Not that I am a literary genius but as a humble English student I have some standards.

For instance, I shuddered when my Chinese speaking friend texted me the message "I carn't score tonight" because the word "carn't" really stuck in my mind in a viral way ever since the text. Hence vindicating my self every chance I get with repeating that dreadful word to others.