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Choose the correct conversation explain? 1 hi ! hello, i hadn't seen you for quite a while. 2 hi ! hello, i haven't seen you for quite a while.

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Question added by Nader Haidar , Official IELTS Instructor , IDP IELTS LEBANON
Date Posted: 2013/10/04
Omaima Muhammad Awny Khater
by Omaima Muhammad Awny Khater , IELTS clerical Marker and Invigilator , IDP

Actually they both make sense to me. Perhaps one colloquial and one standard English.

Ahmed Gendy
by Ahmed Gendy , English Senior Inspector , Ministry of Education (MoE)

If I talk now , I will choose present perfect as it is connected with my talk at present.

 

but we can say  he hadn't seen her for quite a while when she phoned him.    it is connected with the past.

Mariam Youssef
by Mariam Youssef , English Teacher and coordinator , Elquds International School

The second one is correct due to the use of the present perfect tense..as the actions seems to affect the same moment of talking.

In my opinion the second one is the correct answer

Hello, i haven't seen you for quite a while.

Fiazuddin Mohammed
by Fiazuddin Mohammed , Safety Integrated System (SIS) Engineer , YOKOGAWA INDIA LIMITED (Outsourced in YOKOGAWA MIDDLE EAST B.S.C (c): Abu Dhabi-UAE)

2 hi ! hello, i haven't seen you for quite a while.

Hadjer Roubeche
by Hadjer Roubeche , Assistant Professor , école supérieure des sciences économiques et de management

According to me the correct one is I haven't seen you for quite a while because the expression "quite a while" indicates the a small periode of time which means that the situation accured in the near past and the accurate tense for this situation is the present perfect since the past perfect is closely relating to the far past. please if my analysis is wrong please correct it :)

 

Syed Tajammal Hussain Shah
by Syed Tajammal Hussain Shah , English Teacher , Anglo Skills College

In fact both these sentences are incorrect. The correct answer shoud have been:

Hi! I haven't seen you for long?

For a while is used for short time, so we cant use in this sentence. Also we cant use hi and hello at the same time, need to use one either hi or hello.

Aboelezz Mostafa Ibrahim Torky Torky
by Aboelezz Mostafa Ibrahim Torky Torky , Teacher of physics &chemistry (IG&SAT) for international sschool مدرس كيمياء و , مديرية التربية والتعليم بكفر الشيخ جمهورية مصر العربية

hi ! hello, i hadn't seen you for quite a while

Qaisar Shahzad
by Qaisar Shahzad , English Teacher , Fauji Foundation

The phrase "For quite a while" bounds us to be in the present. So, using present tense in this case seems better to me. So, the correct conversation would be: "Hi! Hello, I haven't seen you for quite a while."

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