What is Present Perfect Continuous and when do we use it? When we want to talk about an action or situation that started to happen in the past and did not finish, actually it is continuing up to the present time we use the present perfect continuous tense.
She’s very sick, she has been walking out in a cold weather. (She’s sick now.)
You look tired. What have you been doing?
I have been talking with her about one hour.
Table of Contents
Forms
To form the present perfect continuous tense we need two auxiliary verbs and the present participle (verb+ing) of the main verb. The structure is like this:
Subject + have/has + been + present participle
Pay attention:
- I/you/we/they 》have
- He/she/it 》has
| Subject | Aux Verb | Aux Verb | Main verb+ing (Present Participle) |
| I | have | been | eating |
| You | have | been | running |
| He/She/It | has | been | making |
| We | have | been | studying |
| They | have | been | drinking |
I’ve been studying English since 2002.
She’s been playing piano for 5 years.
Questions and Negatives
Negatives: To make the sentences negative we need to add “not” after “have/has”.
Subject + have/has + not + been + present participle
| Positive | Negative |
| I’ve been playing. | I haven’t been playing. |
| You’ve been playing. | You haven’t been playing. |
| He’s/She’s/It’s been playing. | He/She/It hasn’t been playing. |
| We’ve been playing. | We haven’t been playing. |
| They’ve been playing. | They haven’t been playing. |
Note:
- have not = haven’t
- has not = hasn’t
We haven’t been dancing.
He hasn’t been washing the car.
Questions: We can form a Yes/No question if we change the place of the first auxiliary verb (have/has) and the subject.
Have/has + subject + been + present participle
Have you been working? Yes, I have/No, I haven’t.
Be careful! For YES we do not have a contraction!
Yes, I have (not: yes, I’ve.)
| Statement | Question |
| I’ve been working. | Have I been working? |
| You’ve been working. | Have you been working? |
| He’s/She’s/It’s been working. | Has He/She/It been working? |
| We’ve been working. | Have we been working? |
| They’ve been working. | Have they been working? |
WH question
To form a wh question the structure is like this:
Wh + have/has + subject + been + present participle
What has she been doing? She’s been practicing her lessons.
How have you been washing the dishes? I’ve been washing them with the washing machine.
Intermediate points
What is the present perfect continuous? We use the present perfect continuous for an activity that has recently stopped or just stopped and it has a connection with the present time.
Study this example situation:
Is it snowing? No, it isn’t. But the ground is wet with some snowflakes. It’s been snowing.
Be careful! Pay attention that both present perfect and present perfect continuous are used to talk about actions that started in the past and did not finish and have a connection with the present. The difference is that the present perfect focuses on the result of that action and the present perfect continuous focuses on the process of the action.
Repeated actions
We can also use the present perfect continuous for actions repeated over a period of time.
He’s a perfect musician. He’s been playing guitar since he was nine.
On Fridays, my dad and I go to Smith’s café. We’ve been going there for years.
I am doing VS I have been doing
Finished time expressions
The present perfect continuous is not used with expressions that refer to a finished period of time.
You look tired. Yes, I was working from morning until three o’clock. (Not: I’ve been working from morning until three o’clock.)
Actions that have just stopped
We can also use the present perfect continuous to talk about situations, actions, and events that have just stopped but they have a result in the present time.
You look red. Yes, I’ve been exercising.
They must take a shower. They’ve been playing with mud.
Time expressions
We can use the present perfect continuous with some time expressions that refer to a duration of time that is continuing up to now. These expressions are:
- Recently
- lately
- since February
- this week
- this month
- for the last two days
- etc
He’s been working so hard all last night.
I’ve been participating in a class since November.
How long?
To talk about how long something has been happening we use the present perfect continuous, not the present continuous.
How long have you been studying English? (Not: how long are you studying English?)
I’ve been working in this company for three years. (Not: I’m working in this company for three years.)
It is the first time that …
After “it is the first time that …”, “it’s the second that …” and other similar structures we use the simple present perfect not the continuous form.
This is the first time that I’ve seen her.
It’s the second time that he’s driven a car.
Present Perfect Continuous VS Present Perfect
We can also use the present perfect about actions and situations continuing up to the present. Take a look at these examples.
How long have you been working there?
How long have you been there?
Non-progressive verbs
Some verbs are not used in continuous forms even if the meaning is one for which a continuous form is more suitable. The verbs like “be”, “have”, “know”, “believe”, “like”, etc.
She’s been sick all week. (Not: she’s been being sick for all week.)
He’s had a cold since last week. (Not: he’s been having a cold since last week.)
Temporary
We use the continuous forms mostly for shorter and temporary actions or situations. When we’re talking about permanent situations we mostly use the present perfect. Compare:
The girl has been crying all day.
She hasn’t worked for years.
Note: We generally use the progressive to talk about continuous changes or developments, even if it is permanent.
Scientists believe that the universe has been expanding since …
Advanced points
What is the present perfect continuous? The present perfect continuous is a grammar tense that is used to talk about ongoing actions that started in the past and continue up to now.
How long, for … and Since
We use the present perfect continuous with the expressions above to say that the activity is still happening or had just stopped.
How long has it been raining?
It’s been raining for three hours.
I’ve been studying English since 2002. (I’m still learning English.)
How much? How often?
For saying how much we have done or how often we have done something we use the present perfect, not the continuous form.
I’ve been planting tomato seeds all evening.
Look at those tomato seeds I’ve planted. (Not: look at those tomato seeds I’ve been planting.)
We’ve been cleaning the house.
We’ve cleaned the house since morning. (Not: we’ve been cleaning the house since morning.)
Live/work
We can use both the present perfect simple and continuous with “live” and “work”.
Ellen has been living/has lived in Hawaii for years.
How long have they been working/have they worked in your company?
Note: We use the present perfect simple not the continuous with “always”.
Ellen has always lived in Hawaii.
I’ve always worked in this company.
Expressing the idea
If we want to express the idea of an activity that is in progress up to a recent time or the time of speaking, we can use the present perfect continuous.
She’s been writing her homework for two hours.
Have they been working since morning?
Draw a conclusion
When we want to draw a conclusion about what we see, hear, etc we mostly use the present perfect continuous rather than the present perfect simple.
Look at his face. He’s been eating chocolate, right?
They haven’t been cleaning the house! Everywhere is a mess.
In this article, we talked about the Present Perfect Continuous in English grammar. if you have any questions about this topic, just leave a comment.
You can also check out the English Grammar page to read other grammatical articles.