Learn English – Does “That bridge has been repaired for the past ten years.” mean the repairs were completed 10 years ago

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https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/282335/how-to-use-present-perfect-continuous-in-passive-form

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The above answer was given by a person to describe "How to use Present Perfect Continuous in Passive form?"

I understand that his first example

"That bridge has been being repaired for the past ten years."

means the repair works were started ten years ago and are not yet completed and still going on. I think he also meant the same meaning.

But he stated that his second example

"That bridge has been repaired for the past ten years."

means the repairs were completed ten years ago.

Is that right? To me, his second example means the repair works has been done for the past ten years and completed recently.

I think the active form of his second example is "They have repaired the bridge for the past ten years" which looks like Present Perfect and that means the action was started ten year ago and now finished recently.

And if I need to make a sentence with the meaning of "the repairs were completed ten years ago", then I would say that in passive form as "The Bridge was repaired by them ten year ago"

May be I'm wrong.

So please help me understand. Thanks in advance.

I don't have much reputation to comment there and also that was a two year old post. So that, I've created a new question here to ask about this.

Best Answer

The sentence ""That bridge has been being repaired for the past ten years" is ambiguous. It is unclear if the work started 10 years ago and has not been completed, or if multiple repairs have been made over the ten year span. Furthermore if multiple repairs have been made, it is unclear if the bridge is now repaired or not.

The sentence "That bridge has been repaired for the past ten years" is ambiguous to me too. It definitely means that the bridge is now repaired. But it is unclear if the repairs were completed 10 years ago or if the bridge has been repaired multiple times within the ten year span.

Ok, let's beat this to death so more.

The bridge was repaired 10 years ago.

It is isn't clear if this was the first repair of the bridge, the last, or some intermediate repair. It is also unclear if the bridge needs repair now or not. But 10 years some repairs were made and completed.

The bridge was last repaired 10 years ago.

The last time the bridge was repaired was 10 years ago and those repairs were completed. There may have been previous repairs. It is unclear if the bridge needs repair now or not.

The bridge was last repaired 10 years ago and it is still serviceable.

The last time the bridge was repaired was 10 years ago. There may have been previous repairs. The bridge does not need repair now.

The bridge, now repaired, ...

The bridge does not need repairs now.

The repairs on that bridge started ten years ago and the repairs are still are not finished.

The repairs started 10 years ago and were never completed over the 10 year span.

That bridge started "being repaired" ten years ago.

Repairs were started 10 years ago and have never been finished.

That bridge has been being repaired multiple times over the past ten years.

Over the last 10 years multiple repairs have been completed on the bridge. It is unclear if the bridge needs repair now or not.

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