# FR: I’ve been sneezing all morning



## L'Inconnu

I have been wondering how to translate the following sentence into French. 

  “I’ve been sneezing all morning.” 

  Before answering my question, look at examples A and B. In each example I have a pair of sentences, the first in the present perfect, and the second in the preterit (simple past tense). 

  A) “I’ve lived in Paris for three years.” “I lived in Paris for three years.” 

  B) “I’ve been to the pool three times today.” “I went to the pool three times today.” 

  Looking at the pair of sentences in (A), the present perfect clearly has a different meaning than the preterit. The first sentence, “I have lived in Paris for three years”, means that I moved to Paris three years ago, and I have been living in Paris up to this present day. Since in this case the present perfect tense is describing an action that began in the past and continues in the present, I use the present tense in French.

  “J’habite à Paris depuis trois ans.”

  The second sentence, “I lived in Paris for three years”, specifies that I _used to_ live in Paris for three years, but I no longer live in Paris now. Since the action is terminated, I cannot use the present tense. By convention, the passé composé is used. 

  J’ai habité à Paris pendant trois ans. 

  In (B), both sentences appear to be saying the same thing. However, the present perfect tense “I have been to the pool three times today” implies that I may make further trips to the pool the same day. Whereas, the preterit tense “I went to the pool three times today” suggests that I won’t. French speakers don’t seem to make any such distinction and invariably use their past tense for either of the two sentences. 

  Je suis allé(e) à la piscine trois fois aujourd’hui.”

  Now, returning to my first sentence “I have been sneezing all morning”, which of the two models (A) or (B) does it best fit? If I say 

  “ J’éternue depuis tout le matin”

  will a French person think that I have been making one long continuous sneeze that has lasted several hours? Of course not. As a matter of fact, I won’t be sneezing at the same moment that I am telling him/her so. 

  But should I say 

  “j’ai éturnué pendant tout le matin”

  even if it is reasonably clear that since I have a cold I will be continuing to sneeze for the rest of the day?


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## Outsider

Votre question est intéressante, et je ne suis pas sûr de comment répondre. Pendant que vous attendez d'autres réponses, ce fil antérieur pourra vous inspirer.


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## jann

Your problem doesn't seem to be the tenses, but rather the "all morning" part! 

I've been sneezing all morning = _J'éternue (sans arrêt) depuis ce matin_ 
Literally, you've been sneezing (constantly) "since this morning."  You could say this at any point during the day - late morning, lunch, afternoon, etc.

I sneezed all morning. = _J'ai éternué toute la matinée. _
Switching to "la matinée" communicates duration, and combined with the past tense it implies that it is no longer morning.  You can only use this sentence once the morning is over.


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## Katoussa

"J'ai éternué toute la matinée" est la seule traduction correcte.

Vos propositions n'ont pas de sens en français.


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## madolo

"j'ai éternué toute la matinée "/ "je n'ai pas arrêté d'éternuer depuis ce matin / de tout ce matin / de la matinée" would be my choices


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## Fred_C

Hi, this is definitely not a case where you can use the present tense in French, because the "all morning" does not state a point in time where your sneezing started.
You must say :
"J'ai éternué toute la matinée", which makes indeed no difference with the other English sentence : "I sneezed all morning".

We (as francophones) were taught in school that the difference in English between the progressive present perfect (I have been sneezing) and the simple past (I sneezed) or the plain present perfect (I have sneezed) is that you use the progressive present perfect to insist on the fact that there is a visible consequence to your sneezing. (For example : You look sick, or you want to apologize because you are indeed going to sneeze again.)


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## jann

Katoussa said:


> "J'ai éternué toute la matinée" est la seule traduction correcte.
> 
> Vos propositions n'ont pas de sens en français.


 Veuillez préciser !  _Quelles _propositions n'ont pas de sens ?

Je maintiens qu'on peut dire _Depuis ce matin, j'éternue sans arrêt_... et que ce n'est pas du tout la même chose que la phrase au passé composé... 

EDIT:

I'm sorry to disagree, Fred, but you've missed the point.   There is a huge difference in English between
I've been sneezing all morning
vs.
I sneezed all morning.

The first sentence means that it is still this morning at the moment when you speak.  It would be impossible (grammatically, logically) to use this sentence at any other time.  It also means that you're still sneezing from time to time.
The second sentence means that it is no longer "this morning" at the moment when you speak.  It would be impossible to use this sentence during the morning.  It also means that you are not sneezing any more.

If it is 10 am, and you have been sneezing off and on since you woke up, you will use the first sentence.  But you cannot say in French _J'ai éternué toute la matinée_ under such circumstances... parce que _la matinée _n'est pas encore finie à 10h !  The essential point of the English sentence is NOT to establish the moment when you started sneezing.  It is to mention a poorly-defined period of sneezing and to situate that period with reference to the present.  In order to achieve that same "situation with respect to the present" you must choose your tenses and structure slightly differently in French.


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## Fred_C

Pardon me. I did not say it clearly.
I meant that in French you cannot make a difference between the two different English sentences : "I sneezed all morning" and "I have been sneezing all morning".



jann said:


> If it is 10 am, and you have been sneezing off and on since you woke up, you will use the first sentence. But you cannot say in French _J'ai éternué toute la matinée_ under such circumstances... parce que _la matinée _n'est pas encore finie à 10h !


 
Mais si, je crois qu'on peut tout à fait le dire...
Je vous remercie pour vos précisions très utiles.

EDIT:
I have been reading your post, and I realised that I did not understand the meaning quite right.
The closest English sentence I can come up with and clearly understand as a non-native would be "I have been sneezing since I woke up".
Is it true that this sentence conveys nearly the same meaning?
(Because my understanding of this one is better).
So my guess is that the English uses the progressive present perfect in "I have been sneezing all morning" in analogy with this one.

If it is true (Please telle me if it is not), then we could have the solution :
First, we translate the second sentence into French :
"J'éternue depuis que je me suis levé", using the present tense, as required, 
Then we switch to a negative equivalent, which is interesting because you must express these sentences with a "passé composé" instead of a present tense if they are negative.

"Je n'ai pas cessé d'éternuer depuis que je me suis levé".
Now, it is possible to replace "depuis que je me suis levé" with "de la matinée", exactly like you replaced "Since I woke up" with "all morning"! (Although it is absolutely impossible in a non-negative sentence, for reason that really beat me.)

And you get : "Je n'ai pas cessé d'éternuer de la matinée".
(We've been cheating somehow, but we have come up with an equivalent in both construction and meaning.)


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## jann

Je ne comprends toujours pas pourquoi il serait impossible de dire _Depuis ce matin, j'éternue sans arrêt.  _Je trouve cette structure partout sur google.  Et ça me semble bien différent de _J'ai éternué toute la matinée_... et il me semble que les différences entre ces deux phrases sont à peu près les mêmes différences qui existent entre les deux phrases en anglais.


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## Fred_C

jann said:


> Je ne comprends toujours pas pourquoi il serait impossible de dire _Depuis ce matin, j'éternue sans arrêt. _Je trouve cette structure partout sur google. Et ça me semble bien différent de _J'ai éternué toute la matinée_... et il me semble que les différences entre ces deux phrases sont à peu près les mêmes différences qui existent entre les deux phrases en anglais.


 
Yes you can, but you could also say it at 9 PM.
Whereas in English, you said :



jann said:


> The first sentence means that it is still this morning at the moment when you speak. It would be impossible (grammatically, logically) to use this sentence at any other time


 
Is it absolutely impossible to imagine a situation where you can say "I have been sneezing all morning" yet in the evening?
Like : "I have been sneezing all morning, and now I am very sick." 
Am I wrong?


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## Katoussa

Ahah, désolée, j'avais dit que les propositions précédentes n'étaient pas correctes, mais nos messages se sont croisés en fait. Je voulais prévenir la personne qui a lancé le sujet que ses propositions n'étaient pas acceptables en français.

"Depuis ce matin, j'éternue sans arrêt".  tout à fait correct et usité en français, pas de problème!

Attention à la signification: j'ai commencé à éternuer ce matin et j'éternue encore maintenant. Ce n'est peut-être pas tout à fait la même signification que "I've been sneezing all morning".


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## Maître Capello

_I*'ve been sneezing* all morning =_ Ce matin, je n'*arrête* (présent) pas d'éternuer.


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## Outsider

Maître Capello said:


> _I*'ve been sneezing* all morning =_ Ce matin, je n'*arrête* (présent) pas d'éternuer.


I like that translation. I think it sounds very natural in French!

If it's already afternoon, then you can't say "I've been sneezing all morning". You must use the simple past, "I sneezed all morning", or better yet (in this case) the past continuous, "I was sneezing all morning", or alternative constructions such as "I spent all morning sneezing" (<-- notice the simple past, again).


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## Lora44

I agree with Outsider. It would seem a little strange if someone told me that they *had been sneezing all morning* at 7 o'clock in the evening.


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## L'Inconnu

Fred_C said:


> Hi, this is definitely not a case where you can use the present tense in French, because the "all morning" does not state a point in time where your sneezing started.
> You must say :
> "J'ai éternué toute la matinée", which makes indeed no difference with the other English sentence : "I sneezed all morning".
> 
> We (as francophones) were taught in school that the difference in English between the progressive present perfect (I have been sneezing) and the simple past (I sneezed) or the plain present perfect (I have sneezed) is that you use the progressive present perfect to insist on the fact that there is a visible consequence to your sneezing. (For example : You look sick, or you want to apologize because you are indeed going to sneeze again.)



 Ok, perhaps another example would help clarify this confusion. Suppose that my friend is talking to me on the telephone, and he says: “Yesterday I picked up a fascinating new book.” Then he says one of the following two sentences:

  “I have been reading it all morning.”  “I spent the whole morning reading it.”

  The first sentence tells me that he is not done reading the book yet. He may have read several chapters, but he still has more to read before he finishes the book. I expect that sometime after our conversation, he is going to pick the book up again and continue reading it. Whereas, the second sentence _suggests_ to me he has finished reading the whole book in entirety.

  Now, returning to the first sentence “I’ve been reading it all morning.” we come to the crux of the matter. In a single phrase my friend has said:

  "J’ai passé toute la matinée à le lire, mais je ne l’ai pas encore fini. Plus tard, je vais continuer de le lire."

  Are you saying that I can’t express this sense of continuity with the present tense in French? That is, a simple phrase like: "Ça fait tout ce matin que je le lis" won’t convey the same meaning as the three French phrases above?


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## Outsider

L'Inconnu said:


> [...] a simple phrase like: "Ça fait tout ce matin que je le lis" won’t convey the same meaning as the three French phrases above?


I'm afraid you can't use "ça fait... que" there -- it means "it's been... since"! That may be creating some confusion.


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## geostan

I guess I'll put in my two cents' worth.

_I've been sneezing all morning. _

I brought this type of sentence up in another thread, and as I now understand it, the answer I would give is _J'ai éternué toute la matinée._

If you say the above English sentence, it is still morning. If it is later, then in English you would say _I sneezed all morning.

_As Fred C points out, and he did so in the other thread as well, the French can make no distinction between the two English sentences. This is my thinking as well.


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## L'Inconnu

You Said:
I have been reading your post, and I realised that I did not understand the meaning quite right.
The closest English sentence I can come up with and clearly understand as a non-native would be "I have been sneezing since I woke up".
Is it true that this sentence conveys nearly the same meaning?
(Because my understanding of this one is better).
So my guess is that the English uses the progressive present perfect in "I have been sneezing all morning" in analogy with this one.

If it is true (Please telle me if it is not), then we could have the solution :
First, we translate the second sentence into French :
"J'éternue depuis que je me suis levé", using the present tense, as required, 



I say: 
I would change your sentence "I have been sneezing since I woke up." to: “I have been sneezing _ever_ since I woke up.” Notice that I added the word “ever” to stress the sense of continuity. Then, I would have a phrase I could use at any time of the day.

On the other hand, I can only use "I have been sneezing all morning" if the morning isn’t over yet. In the afternoon, I could say “I have been sneezing _ever_ since I woke up”, meaning that I have been sneezing in the morning and afternoon, and I may expect to keep on sneezing up until night time. I could express the same idea by saying: “I’ve been sneezing all day”. Which brings me back to: can I say “Voilà toute la journéé que j’éternue.”?




You said:
Then we switch to a negative equivalent, which is interesting because you must express these sentences with a "passé composé" instead of a present tense if they are negative.

"Je n'ai pas cessé d'éternuer depuis que je me suis levé".
Now, it is possible to replace "depuis que je me suis levé" with "de la matinée", exactly like you replaced "Since I woke up" with "all morning"! (Although it is absolutely impossible in a non-negative sentence, for reason that really beat me.)

And you get : "Je n'ai pas cessé d'éternuer de la matinée".
(We've been cheating somehow, but we have come up with an equivalent in both construction and meaning.)[/quote]




I say:
Now, looking at your phrase: "Je n'ai pas cessé d'éternuer de la matinée". If “de la matinee” means “depuis ce matin”, your phrase might translate as: "I haven’t stopped sneezing since this morning". I am not sure about the French phrase, but I can only use the English phrase if the morning is over. If the morning isn’t over, I will say: “I haven’t stopped sneezing all morning.”


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## Maître Capello

Lora44 said:


> To me, it would seem a little strange if someone told me that they *had been sneezing all morning* at 7 o'clock in the evening.


Agreed. However, please consider this other example where it also makes sense to use the present perfect continuous even if the event itself is over:

— _Look through the window! There is plenty of snow outside!
— Wow, right! And it's sunny. It must *have been snowing* all night long!_



L'Inconnu said:


> can I say “Voilà toute la journée que j’éternue.”?


You definitely could, but I think we would more naturally say, _J'éternue depuis le début de la journée._


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## jann

Outsider has it correct: using "have been sneezing all morning" will only work if it is _still_ morning.

I recognize that you cannot capture all of the temporal nuance of the two English sentences in French... but seeing as the thread author asked about "I've been sneezing all morning" in post #1 of this thread, I assumed he was looking for a sentence that you would use _during the morning_... which is why I have felt from the beginning that any/all of the present tense options mentioned (_j'éternue depuis ce matin, depuis mon reveil, etc._) would be preferrable translations to the passé composé formulations.


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## Lora44

Maître Capello said:


> However, please consider this other example where it also makes sense to use the present perfect continuous even if the event itself is over:
> 
> — _Look through the window! There is plenty of snow outside!
> — Wow, right! And it's sunny. It must *have been snowing* all night long!_



Your example is slightly different I'm afraid. I think the modal verb here plays a role, making the tense a past one.
*I must have been sneezing = *I am no longer sneezing
*I have been sneezing = *I may still be sneezing

You're right, you can say *It must have been snowing all night long *at any time, much in the same way as you can say *I must have been sneezing all morning* at 7 o'clock in the evening.

*It has been snowing all night long* can only be said during the night, in the same way as *I have been sneezing all morning* can only be said when it is still considered to be morning.


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## Fred_C

L'Inconnu said:


> I say:
> Now, looking at your phrase: "Je n'ai pas cessé d'éternuer de la matinée". If “de la matinee” means “depuis ce matin”, your phrase might translate as: "I haven’t stopped sneezing since this morning". I am not sure about the French phrase, but I can only use the English phrase if the morning is over. If the morning isn’t over, I will say: “I haven’t stopped sneezing all morning.”



Not really :
"de la matinée" does not really mean "depuis ce matin", it is a mix between "depuis ce matin" and "toute la matinée", which makes it possible to use this sentence even if the morning is not over.


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## Fred_C

Lora44 said:


> *It has been snowing all night long* can only be said during the night, in the same way as *I have been sneezing all morning* can only be said when it is still considered to be morning.



And what about this situation.
You suffer insomnia, and you stay the whole night sitting in front of the window, watching the snow falling.
In the morning, the clouds disappear, and the sun shines.
Then your friends wake up and exclaim :
"How comes there's so much snow and such a beautiful weather?"
Can you not answer :
"It's because it's been snowing all night long." ???


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## Arthur_J

You could say 'It's been snowing all night long' the following morning but by, say, late afternoon it would start to sound strange.

Similarly you could get away with saying 'I've been sneezing all morning' at 2pm but not at say 9.


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## Maître Capello

L'Inconnu said:


> I would change your sentence "I have been sneezing since I woke up." to: “I have been sneezing _ever_ since I woke up.” Notice that I added the word “ever” to stress the sense of continuity. Then, I would have a phrase I could use at any time of the day.


Does the use of the adverb _ever_ really allow you to say the sentence at any time of the day?

* * * * * * *



jann said:


> Je ne comprends toujours pas pourquoi il serait impossible de dire _Depuis ce matin, j'éternue sans arrêt._


Since _I've been sneezing all morning_ implies that it's still the morning, I advise not to use _*depuis*_. It is indeed better to say just _ce matin_. Note however that _depuis ce matin_ is definitely the phrase of choice if it is the afternoon or any time after the morning. This seems to be similar in English if I haven't misunderstood L'Inconnu's following comment:


L'Inconnu said:


> "I haven’t stopped sneezing since this morning". I am not sure about the French phrase, but I can only use the English phrase if the morning is over. If the morning isn’t over, I will say: “I haven’t stopped sneezing all morning.”



_I've been sneezing all morning._ (It is still the morning.) → _J'éternue sans arrêt ce matin. / Ce matin, je n'arrête pas d'éternuer.
I've been sneezing since this morning. _(It is no longer the morning.)_ → J'éternue sans arrêt depuis ce matin._


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## jann

This last post is very clear and helpful, MC, and I quite agree with everything below the line of asterisks. 

And now, to answer your question:


			
				MaîtreCapello said:
			
		

> L'Inconnu said:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> I would change your sentence "I have been sneezing since I woke up." to: “I have been sneezing _ever_ since I woke up.” Notice that I added the word “ever” to stress the sense of continuity. Then, I would have a phrase I could use at any time of the day.
> 
> 
> 
> Does the use of the adverb _ever_ really allow you to say the sentence at any time of the day?
Click to expand...

No.  The verb tense is what dictates the timing; the addition of the adverb _ever_ is not significant.   What allows you to use this sentence at any time during the day is the substitution of _since I woke up_ for _all morning_.


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## Arthur_J

Lora44 said:


> Your example is slightly different I'm afraid. I think the modal verb here plays a role, making the tense a past one.
> *I must have been sneezing = *I am no longer sneezing
> *I have been sneezing = *I may still be sneezing
> 
> *It has been snowing all night long* can only be said during the night, in the same way as *I have been sneezing all morning* can only be said when it is still considered to be morning.



I don't see what the modal verb has got to do with anything. To my mind you could definitely say 'It has been snowing all night' after having got up in the morning.
Suppose for a further example that you have recently come home from work. To explain why you were tired you might say 'I've been working all day.' This despite your having finished work and the fact it might no longer be day. However you can only say this for a few hours before people lose sympathy.


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## Maître Capello

jann said:


> And now, to answer your question: No.  The verb tense is what dictates the timing; the addition of the adverb _ever_ is not significant.   What allows you to use this sentence at any time during the day is the substitution of _since I woke up_ for _all morning_.


Oops! Right. I hadn't noticed the substitution. Thanks for the clarification!


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## L'Inconnu

Fred_C said:


> Not really :
> "de la matinée" does not really mean "depuis ce matin", it is a mix between "depuis ce matin" and "toute la matinée", which makes it possible to use this sentence even if the morning is not over.



 Are we thinking of “de la matinee” in the sense of “à partir de tel moment”, but at the same time we have a sense of the partitif, such as in: “du temps”?


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## Maître Capello

L'Inconnu said:


> Are we thinking of “de la matinee” in the sense of “à partir de tel moment”, but at the same time we have a sense of the partitif, such as in: “du temps”?


In fact, _de (toute) la matinée_ means _pendant (toute) la matinée_.


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## Outsider

Arthur_J said:


> Suppose for a further example that you have recently come home from work. To explain why you were tired you might say 'I've been working all day.' This despite your having finished work and the fact it might no longer be day. However you can only say this for a few hours before people lose sympathy.


A "day" can mean the time between sunrise and sunset, but it can also mean a period of 24 hours. In the latter sense, you are still within the time frame as you speak.


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## Maître Capello

Fred_C said:


> "de la matinée" […] is a mix between "depuis ce matin" and "toute la matinée", which makes it possible to use this sentence even if the morning is not over.


I don't quite agree with you…

_Je n'*arrête* pas d'éternuer ce matin. →_ It is still the morning and I'm likely to sneeze again. → _I've been sneezing all morning.

Je n'*ai* pas *arrêté* d'éternuer de la matinée. → _The morning is over (or possibly about to be over) and you don't say anything about your sneezing being over or not. I would never use that sentence before mid-morning. → _I didn't stop sneezing for the whole morning._

+++
Note to L'Inconnu: While the tense of choice for the first sentence is the *present*, the sentence with _de la matinée_ has to be in the *passé composé*.


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## L'Inconnu

So, to summarize what I have learned. We start with

  “I’ve been sneezing all morning.”

  In this case, I mean that I began sneezing ever since I got up, I have continued to do so for the entire morning and, moreover, the morning isn’t finished yet. I can indeed use the present tense in French, but I have to be careful in the way I construct the sentence, specifically in regards to the expression of time I use. The phrase

  “ J’éternue depuis tout le matin”

  is confusing to French speakers. Apparently, because “depuis” and “tout le matin” don’t go well together. Curiously, if I translate it into English I get “I have been sneezing since all morning.” C’est drôle, mais la proposition n’a pas de sens même en anglais! Donc, sans doute c’est foutu. So, instead I may use something like

_"J'éternue sans arrêt ce matin."_

  That is, if it is still morning. Now the sentence seems to be saying: “I have been sneezing non-stop this morning.” Not quite the same as _“I've been sneezing all morning” _but, presumably, one a French person would understand. How about if I say

  “J’éternue pendant toute la matinee.”?


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## jann

L'Inconnu said:


> How about if I say
> 
> “J’éternue pendant toute la matinee.”?


No, that one won't work. 

The problem has two parts:


combining the present tense with _tout la matinée_ doesn't work.   As MC said in his "note" at the end of the preceding post, you can only use _tout la matinée_ if the morning is over.  But if the morning is over, you cannot use the present tense, because by lunchtime, the morning is firmly in the past.
combining _pendant_ with _toute_ is a bit redundant. In a sentence built like this one, the expression _toute + la matinée_/_[or any other time period]_ means "during the (entire) morning [or whatever other time period]"... so you don't need to add _pendant = _during as well.
Does that make sense?


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## Lora44

Arthur_J said:


> I don't see what the modal verb has got to do with anything. To my mind you could definitely say 'It has been snowing all night' after having got up in the morning.
> Suppose for a further example that you have recently come home from work. To explain why you were tired you might say 'I've been working all day.' This despite your having finished work and the fact it might no longer be day. However you can only say this for a few hours before people lose sympathy.




Yes, you could say 'it has been snowing all night' the following morning, but you could not say that in the afternoon. It would sound strange. It's the same with the sneezing - you can say 'I've been sneezing all morning' at 2 o'clock in the afternoon and perhaps get away with it, but at 9 o'clock that evening it will sound strange.

'I have been working all day' is completely different - here the 'day' isn't necessarily refering to day/night, it's refering to the day as a whole. The following morning you cannot say 'I've been working all day'. You *can* say 'I've been working all night' though. I think it's a question of proximity - to take the example of sneezing, either it has to be still morning or it has to be sufficiently close to morning that you're still talking about something that could still be a present action. You may have stopped sneezing but that is not implied. 

As for the 'must', for me it makes a huge difference. For me there is a huge difference in meaning (even in the tenses) between *I must have been sneezing all morning* and *I have been sneezing all morning*. I don't know the grammatical terms for the tenses, but in the first sentence the action is complete, whereas in the second, as I said, it may be finished but that is not implied with the tense.


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## L'Inconnu

Let me try one more time

  “I have been sneezing all morning”

  The present tense in English presumably corresponds to the present tense in French. That is, if it is clear that the action is on going. In English, we have several different modes of the present tense: I sneeze, I am sneezing, I have sneezed, I have been sneezing, In French, however, there is only one mode, “J’éternue”. When I translate between the two languages, I have to use temporal constructions in order to distinguish between the different present tense modes in English. Let’s look at some of the examples that we’ve come up with.

_J'ai éternué toute la matinée._ - "I sneezed all morning."

  We’ve switched to past tense. I’m not sure if we have expressed the idea the action will continue on into the afternoon. 


_Ce matin, je n'arrête pas d'éternuer._ “This morning, I haven’t stopped sneezing.”

  This phrase is more emphatic but, after all, the original English phrase is an affirmative statement. As an exercise, I am trying to match the original English phrase as precisely as possible.


  “_Ce matin, j'éternue sans arrêt._" "This morning, I (am/have been) sneezing non-stop"

  At this point, I have choice between my _present continuous_ and my _present perfect continuous_. 


  “J’éternue depuis je me suis levé.” “I _have been_ sneezing since I got up”

  Now, we’ve specified an earlier time in which the activity has begun. I can no longer use my _present continuous_. Moreover, it’s clear that I have been sneezing more or less continuously up to the present moment. We’ve achieved the _present perfect continuous_, and certainly we have a phrase that would be understood either by French or English speakers. However, I am still not satisfied, because the original English phrase is “I have been sneezing _all morning_”. It works fine in English, so long as the morning hasn’t ended yet. But why doesn’t it work in French?

  I can’t use “depuis toute la matinée” or “pendant toute la matinée”, admittedly, phrases like “since all morning” and “during all morning” make no sense in English, either. Going back to model (A) in my original post, can I say

  “Voilà/Ça fait toute la matinée que j’éternue”?


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