I am Japanese and I would like to ask native English speakers about what you think about the grammar in the following sentences.
- It's been a while since I've sat at a dinner table together with a family.
- It's been a while since I sat at a dinner table together with a family.
To my knowledge, the 2nd one should be grammatically correct but often hear the 1st one "It's been a while since I've ~".
Which one do you think is grammatically correct? and if you think that both of them are correct, I believe that there is a subtle difference in the meaning. I would like to know your opinions on the differences.
Thank you very much.
Best Answer
Grammatical Correctness
I believe both are grammatically correct. If you take out the apostrophes you can write:
and
Both seem fine to me.
Which is More Commonly Used
The best I could come up with for which is more common turned up the following (from Google books searches):
I've * Variants
I'd * Variants
I * Variants
You can also see a similar story unfolding by looking at google Ngram viewer using "been a while since I *".
Subtle Meaning Differences
As for the subtle differences, I think it boils down to the tense of the verb
to sit
.I sat
is the simple past and is used toI have sat
is the present perfect and is used to