[Grammar] Is it raining? - Not, it isn't but the ground is wet. It has rained.

[Son Ho]

Good afternoon, teachers.
Please help me with this sentence in which I don't know how to distinguish between the simple perfect or the continuous perfect. Because they both happened in the past but have results at present. Which one is correct?

1. Is it raining? - No, it isn't but the ground is wet. It has rained.
2. Is it raining? - No, it isn't but the ground is wet. It has been raining.

 

[Tarheel]

Neither is wrong. However, with the second one it is more likely that it is raining at the present time.

 

[jutfrank]

The difference is that the present perfect continuous carries the sense that the activity of raining was ongoing.

This is why this is such a common example for teachers to use to illustrate the use of the present perfect continuous for explaining the past with present evidence—because we easily and naturally conceive raining as ongoing, rather than as a single event.

 

[Tarheel]

Somehow I missed "No, it isn't ...." the first time.