I've just created a short English interrogative sentence in the future perfect progressive:
*Shall I already have been waiting for one hour for you when you arrive?*
Now my question:
Is this sentence correct and elegant if I want to express the feeling "Do you really want me to be waiting for you such a long time?" ?
(If not, which would be the accurate sentence for this issue?)
- and yes, of course you're welcome to point out my language mistakes I generally made in my topics :-)
Way too clumsy.
"Shall I have been waiting an hour by the time you arrive?"
That sounds much better.
Okay, thank ya!
You said that "Shall I already have been waiting for one hour for you when you arrive?" is a way too clumsy.
Does it sound more ridiculous/stupid or more like it's-okay-but-very-arty?
(I know, what a question ;) But that's the problem for EFL people like me who haven't got that much input yet. Often I don't have the feeling or to tell the truth really no clue what sounds just normal and elegant)
Well... The original sentence was correct for the most part. It was just too rigid and difficult to work into rhythm. So yeah, I guess you can say it was "too arty."
1) "Shall I already have been waiting for one hour for you when you arrive?"
It's almost correct but not elegant at all.
2) "Shall I have been waiting for one hour for you when you arrive?"
This is correct and somewhat more elegant if only for clearing away a little of the clutter. "Already" way not in the right time frame (it's used for now not for the future) nor did it add anything to the meaning of the question.
4) "Shall I have been waiting an hour by the time you arrive?"
This is much more natural sounding. However, if it's the feeling
5) "Do you really want me to be waiting for you such a long time?"
that you want to express, then why not just say that?
or it simply means: "should you always be late an hour or so?"
I probably shouldn't be chiming in (since I speak American English), but all these sentences sound terribly awkward to me (with exception of 5 in Jim's post)
"Shall I already have been waiting for one hour for you when you arrive?" I'd say as " Am I really supposed to wait an hour before you arrive?!" Of course, I might add some unsuitable four letter words at the end too, depending on my mood :)
*Thank you* to all of you for your comments!
The German sentence "Soll ich bereits eine Stunde auf dich gewartet haben wenn du ankommst?" (bereits = already) works very well for this issue.
Translated into a correct English it would be the sentence I gave you in my first statement: "Shall I already have been waiting for one hour for you when you arrive?"
But a grammatical correct translation is only one part. Elegance and a natural sounding is the other, much more important part!
to Tiffany
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I probably shouldn't be chiming in (since I speak American English)
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Why not?
Can ya imagine what the 2 letters "AE" stand 4? ;)
Oh boy! I wanna learn American, not English! ;)
In that case, despense with the "shall". Say something like "Do I have to wait an hour before you arrive?" if you're really just asking. If you're angry at the suggestion of waiting, follow Tiffany's advice.
Made a typo...
I know how to spell "dispense". Not sure why I did that...
Like Someone caught onto, it was the use of "Shall" that made me think you wanted to know how it would be said it BrE.