Grammar › Present Perfect Continuous

Present Perfect Continuous: negative sentences

450 fill-in-the-gap exercises, 45 tests of ten

Not goes after have or has, before been.

The pattern

Not slots in after the first auxiliary:

She has not been sleeping. → She hasn’t been sleeping.

The order never varies: have or has, not, been, -ing.

Not for long, not since

The negative usually says how little has happened, and takes the same duration words:

• They haven’t been living here long.
• It hasn’t been raining since Tuesday.

Denying an assumption

As with other continuous tenses, the negative often corrects what the other person is thinking:

I haven’t been avoiding you — I*’ve been** away.*

Both halves sit in the same tense, which makes the contrast clear.

The plain form is often better

When you want to deny that something happened at all, rather than deny the duration, the ordinary Present Perfect is the natural choice:

I haven’t read it. — not started or not finished. I haven’t been reading it. — I have not been spending time on it lately.

All forms

Examples

Taken from the 450 sentences in this drill. The answer is highlighted.

• The engine hasn't been making that noise since the repair.
• The nurse hasn't been taking the night shift this month.
• He hasn't been working hard, so he didn't earn a promotion.
• I haven't been seeing my friend for a long time, so I want to catch up with them.
• The children haven't been playing since the evening class started.
• The men haven't been working on the roof because of the wind.
• The students haven't been following the news since the election.
• Jack hasn't been playing the piano for hours.
• I haven't been going to that restaurant in a while, but I remember it was good.
• We haven't been talking about that issue since last week.
• We haven't been paying enough attention to our health recently.
• She hasn't been studying for hours.

Mistakes to avoid

Other forms of Present Perfect Continuous