hurry up
- Thread starter mimi2
- Start date
You could also say:
"Hurry up! You should have been ready by now!"
"Hurry up! You should have been ready by now!"
Hi, OldMike.
I am much interested in your sentence. I would like to know why you decided to choose the past.
Thanks.
Thank you very much.
Please answer me one more question.
Is it right that "by now" affects your choice? I mean that you chose the past because of "by now". Right?
Thanks.
I think that "you should have been ready" implies a judgement: you've really been slow; you should have been ready some time ago!
"You should be ready by now" isn't quite so bad. You've been a bit slow. Most people would be ready by now, but I wouldn't have expected you to be ready a lot earlier.
This has just occurred to me, however, so I'm not completely sure. What do others think?
"You should be ready by now" isn't quite so bad. You've been a bit slow. Most people would be ready by now, but I wouldn't have expected you to be ready a lot earlier.
This has just occurred to me, however, so I'm not completely sure. What do others think?
If you are already ready, I won't ask you to hurry up. I know you are not ready. For the same reason, I don't think you have been ready.
But I can still say I did in the past think that you would have been ready by now.
But I can still say I did in the past think that you would have been ready by now.
That's correct, Mimi.
It's the immediate past that we're talking about here.
I thought, until a moment ago when I saw that you were not even close to being ready, that you would be ready by now ("by now" meaning at this point in time.) In other words, I'm surprised to find that you're not ready. I had an expectation that you would be ready and that expectation has not been met.
Let's say my wife and I were planning to go out and needed to leave at 7:20 to be on time. I walk into the bedroom at 7:18 and she's just stepping out of the shower. I say, "I thought (until I walked into the bedroom) that you would be ready by now (in order to leave the house at 7:20)."
Sorry to be so wordy, but I hope that helps to explain the thinking behind the phrase, at least as I see it.
For some reason, I don't think this example is good. Perhaps with the correct context. If we are talking in the present to someone, when we say "Hurry Up!" That is a command form in the present, so we should stick the the present tense. "thought" and "would" in your examples are part of the past tense.
Pablo
Hello again, forumfolk!
"By now" really doesn't fit with "you have been ready".
"By now" refers to something completed before now or at the latest completed just now, but "you have been ready" says that you got ready sometime before now and are still ready now. Since your being ready cannot have completed "by now" and also be continuing now, we have a contradiction.
To make sense out of this, we must eliminate either "by now" or "have been".
Case 1. "Hurry up! I think you have been ready." This implies that you are ready, so what I am saying is that you can hurry since you are ready. Possible I guess, but a little strange.
Case 2. "Hurry up! I think you ... ready by now." I think something (now) about the completion no later than now of something that has to do with your readiness. It's obvious that that something is your getting ready. I think that your getting ready ... completed by now. Here something like "should have been" fits because it means you should have already gotten ready by now. I can very well believe you should have been ready even at the same time I know that you aren't ready.
Case 3. "Hurry up! I thought you ... ready by now." In this case, I am no longer talking about what I believe now but about something I thought in the past. "Would be" or "would have been" fits here. If at an earlier time I thought "you will be/will have been ready well before 7:20" but now I see that it is nearly 7:20 and you are not ready, I tell you to hurry up because your not being ready has created a problem with the plans I made under an assumption now known to be false.
"By now" really doesn't fit with "you have been ready".
"By now" refers to something completed before now or at the latest completed just now, but "you have been ready" says that you got ready sometime before now and are still ready now. Since your being ready cannot have completed "by now" and also be continuing now, we have a contradiction.
To make sense out of this, we must eliminate either "by now" or "have been".
Case 1. "Hurry up! I think you have been ready." This implies that you are ready, so what I am saying is that you can hurry since you are ready. Possible I guess, but a little strange.
Case 2. "Hurry up! I think you ... ready by now." I think something (now) about the completion no later than now of something that has to do with your readiness. It's obvious that that something is your getting ready. I think that your getting ready ... completed by now. Here something like "should have been" fits because it means you should have already gotten ready by now. I can very well believe you should have been ready even at the same time I know that you aren't ready.
Case 3. "Hurry up! I thought you ... ready by now." In this case, I am no longer talking about what I believe now but about something I thought in the past. "Would be" or "would have been" fits here. If at an earlier time I thought "you will be/will have been ready well before 7:20" but now I see that it is nearly 7:20 and you are not ready, I tell you to hurry up because your not being ready has created a problem with the plans I made under an assumption now known to be false.