Hello.
I received this reply from an American police force:
“The incident has been investigated and the involved parties have been contacted”
My natural language is not English, so I need help to fully understand this reply.
In English, is there any chance that “has been” and “have been” can be referring to something that happened a year ago? Or is it a recent past? If it’s a recent past, I know that there is not established time limit…but in your personal sense what is the most distant past that “has been” can be referring to?
Thank you.
2007-06-07 20:10:12 · 7 answers · asked by f_vidigal 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
The incident 'has been investigated' - there is only one incident so it is 'has' not 'have'.
The involved parties 'have been' contacted - there is more than one person involved who has been contacted. It is 'have' been because it is plural.
There is no of length of time stated nor implied by 'has' or 'have'. It means anything in the past, recent past or distant past. Only the context of the letter tells you this. So yes the incident may be the one that happened a year ago. I hope this helps.
2007-06-07 20:24:14 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 0⤋
Hello.
In my personal sense the statement above means:
The incident has been investigated - it has not been ignored
The incident has been investigated - the investigation is most likely over, completed, and not ongoing
The incident has been investigated - there was only one single incident that was investiaged, no other incidents
"has been" because it was a single incident, "have been" if there were more than one incident, including other related incidents. The investigation could have, and did occur, ANYTIME within the last year. The most distant past would have been immediately after the incident. I hope this helps.
2007-06-08 03:26:10 · answer #2 · answered by WMD 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Hi.
The 'has been' and 'have been' indicate that the investigation and the action of contacting the involved parties have been completed or completely done.
The 'has been' and 'have been' are the so-called 'passive voice'. Instead of saying 'we have investigated the incident' they may also say 'the incident has been investigated.' Instead of saying 'we have contacted the involved parties' they may also say 'the involved parties have been contacted.'
Passive voice is used to emphasize the subject of the topic. 'The incident' and 'the involved parties' apparently need more attention or are considered more important than 'we - the police'.
All the best. Ta
2007-06-08 05:21:42 · answer #3 · answered by waterlily 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
"Has been" or "have been" could be referring to any date in time. So, it could have happened a year ago, or even longer.
So, your letter just means that they have investigated about what happened, and they have contacted the people involved.
2007-06-08 15:13:41 · answer #4 · answered by ? 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
the incident has been investigated
refers to that incident where you most likely call the police and they notifying you that they are investigating the complaint. the time limit is the time of the incident whenever this happened.
2007-06-08 04:19:00 · answer #5 · answered by SUAVE38 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
english is my second language, so also look for other answers to be sure.
I think that 'has been' is anything that happened in past. it doesnt matters how long ago, yesterday or one year ago. but I'm not sure about 'have been'.
2007-06-08 03:26:03 · answer #6 · answered by . 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
not really any time limit involved. it's just saying that it has been done
2007-06-08 03:21:13 · answer #7 · answered by mrs. jones 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋