Grammar

Present Perfect Continuous tense

1,990 fill-in-the-gap exercises across 4 forms

For an activity that started in the past and is still running, or has only just stopped. The point is how long it has lasted.

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When you need it

• Still going on, and you are saying how long. He has been driving since dawn.
• Just stopped, and the result is visible. Your hands are dirty — have you been gardening?
• A repeated activity over a period. She has been calling all week.
• An explanation for the present state. I’m exhausted. I’ve been moving furniture.

The tense answers the question how long, not the question how many.

Continuous or plain Present Perfect

Both connect past to present. They differ in what they point at.

Continuous — the activity itself, and how long it has run:

I have been reading that book. — still reading, possibly halfway.

Plain Present Perfect — the result, and how much was completed:

I have read that book. — finished, and I can tell you about it.

The clearest test is what follows. For and since with a duration pull the Continuous. A number pulls the plain form:

• She has been writing letters all morning.
• She has written four letters.

for and since

Both mark duration, and they are not interchangeable:

• for takes a length of time: for ten minutes, for three years, for ages
• since takes the point it started: since Monday, since 2015, since we moved

He has been working here for six months / …since June.

State verbs take the plain form

Know, understand, believe, like, want, own, belong and the rest do not take -ing. With them, duration is expressed by the ordinary Present Perfect:

We have known each other for years. — not have been knowing.

Three verbs sit on the border and allow both with almost no change in meaning: live, work, study.

I have lived here for ten years and I have been living here for ten years are both natural.

All forms

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