A doubt on sentence

Dinesh Kumar   Wed May 23, 2007 2:35 am GMT
What is the difference between " Work is done " and "Work has been done" ?
furrykef   Wed May 23, 2007 8:36 am GMT
What's funny is that the difference is easy for native speakers to grasp, but we have trouble actually explaining it and it often makes no difference which form you use... you could also say "work was done" as well.

When you say "work is done", it's a statement about the status of the work right now: it is finished, rather than unfinished. When you say "work was done", then the emphasis is on the action of doing the work, rather than the status. "Work has been done" actually has a bit of both elements... there's some emphasis on the action of doing work, but also on the current state of affairs, whereas "work was done" has no apparent connection to the present.

Does that make sense? I know it's kind of confusing...

- Kef