A. "I have played the piano since last year." B. "I have been playing the piano since last year." Which would you say is better and why??
http://www.differencebetween.net/language/difference-between-have-or-have-been/ https://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/8472/has-vs-has-been-or-have-vs-have-been/8483
since it's not clear whether the action is continuing in the present, i think A is better. edit 1: oh wait, joke. time was mentioned xD
The first is wrong in the first place, so the second one wins by default. The 1st one be like this I have "not" played the piano since last year. Since the word played means the action stopped.
I don't particularly mind grammar mistakes etc, because I usually just go with the best sounding, or the one that makes sense. But from what I understand, the first sentence is in the form of past participle tense, which make use of "have" and "played", while the second sentence use present perfect continuous tense, which make use of "been" + "ing (playing)" + "since". In a sense, B makes more sense, and make it clear that the piano is still being played even now. However, A is not working wrong either. Spoiler: From my poor understanding What makes all of us instinctively think B is the correct one while A is not, is that from the sentence structure of A, it is as if the piano is being played since last year, and still being played even now, and without any rest or break, continuing even now as we speak. In other word, the use of verb (action) and that "since" in the first sentence is making the whole sentence looks weird. It doesn't make sense that someone is playing the piano the whole time, without stopping at all. Normally, the first sentence is used with not a verb, but an adjective. For example: - I have known about that piano since last year. This makes sense because it indicates that I have known and never forgot (unless stated later on) about the piano since last year. I never stopped knowing about the piano. Now try to make the second sentence using this "known" adjective. - I have been knowing about the piano since last year.. Sound so wrong right? But if we used noun instead of adjective here - the piano have been in my knowledge since last year. Knowledge is the noun here. So it now it makes sense. Now let's switch our attention to the second sentence. From sentence B, we can imply that the piano have been played by the narrator since last year, but its not being constantly played all the time either. The sentence make it sound like its a continuous act of playing the piano, but with breaks and rest. So it makes more sense. Nothing to dispute about the second sentence here. That's why, IMO, both are grammatically correct, but since we're using the verb here, the second sentence is better. The first sentence is not wrong, but illogical. Again, this is all from my understanding.
as @Ruyue mention that perfect sentence type, so both is correct depend on the intention of the speaker~ A. play piano but dunno will play piano again or not B. still play piano hey english have past. present. future, perfect and combination ya know~ isn't that basic stuff?
Obviously the second option. The first one's wrong. When you're using since as a time indicator, the tense used should always be perfect continuous. Edit: I was actually wrong about always using since for perfect continuous. Here are the possible correct answers- Option B. Correct for the aforementioned reason. "I have not played the piano since last year" In this case, though since is as a time indicator, when we use not in the sentence it indicates something that has happened last year and is still true. "I have played the piano" The sentence has been cut off from the word since and as such doesn't indicate a certain time and the meaning changes to playing the piano before and it being true still.