A present perfect progressive

English grammar questions, answered by Alan

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pdh0224
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A present perfect progressive

Post by pdh0224 »

Dear teacher,

Dates, filling and nutritious, are especially good to help you fast, said Mr. Moustapha, who invites anyone in his shop at sunset to join him in the back kitchen, where he offers dates, along with milk and tea. Together they say prayers before sharing a soup that he has bubbling on his back burner.

Q : I think the bold part is odd because I believe the tense of the sentence is a present perfect progressive. I think "he has being bubbling (a soup) on his back burner" is a right sentence. If "bubbling" is just an adjective, "he has bubbling (a soup) , S + V + Adj + article + Noun, is an odd structure. What do you think?


All the best,
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Alan
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Post by Alan »

No, there's nothing at all odd about it: it's a simple sequence of essentially unrelated phrases: (1) relative clause 'which he has' followed by (2) 'bubbling', a present participle referring back (via 'which') to 'soup'.
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