We have eaten breakfast together every morning since our honeymoon. (I don't understand it.)
We have been eating breakfast together every morning since our honeymoon. (I understand it.)
Is there a difference in meaning between them?
For me the second sentence looks much better. I could understand the first sentence if it were "We have eaten every breakfast together since our honeymoon." This way it would sound like "We have gained every score in this game since the beginning."
What prevents me from understanding the first one is that to eat something every morning is a habitual action and it calls for Present Simple:
We eat breakfast together every morning since our honeymoon.
By the way, is this sentence correct?
Best Answer
You're using the present perfect tense in the first, and the present perfect progressive in the second.
This means that as a married couple, you and your spouse have never spent a single breakfast alone from the first day of your marriage to now, the present day. The action is repeated, and does not exclude the fact that having breakfast together requires a certain duration of time.
Perfectly acceptable, although an unlikely situation if the marriage is longer than six months. (I'm joking!)
Literally, this could be interpreted as both of you eating breakfast non-stop since day one of your marriage.
This of course does not make sense; however, the fact you have inserted
ever morningmeans the action is being repeated, it is not uninterrupted as it could appear at first glance. You need to avoid this ambiguity, native speakers will tend to do this automatically without thinking.Opting for:
or
or
(Insert
alwaysto emphasize an action is repeated regularly).