Present Perfect Continuous Tense

Present Perfect Continuous

also called:

Present Perfect Progressive

Present Perfect Continuous

Present Perfect Continuous is very similar in meaning to the Present Perfect, but focuses more on the duration of the action.

Present Perfect Continuous

Is used:

• to express general activity in progress recently, lately .

• to indicate the duration of an activity that began in the past and continues to the present .

Present Perfect Continuous

FORM:

John has been doing homework for 3 hours.

Why doesn’t he have a break?

Present Perfect Continuous

Example:

*It began raining 2 hours ago.

*It is STILL raining now.

It has been raining

for two hours.

Present Perfect Continuous

Key words:

• For

• Since
• All morning/day/week
• Recently
• Lately

Present Perfect Continuous

Example:

We have been wait ing for Ana for the last 2 hours.

Tom has been liv ing here since 1995.

Recently

Lately

Since

All day

For

It has been rain ing all day . It’s still raining now.

I see him every day. We have been work ing together recently .

Jim has been sunbath ing for 2 hours.

Jim /sunbathe

/for 2 hours.

SAY

He’s still on the beach

Ben has been think ing all day about his future exam.

Rex has been runn ing after a cat for a long time .

Rex /run after a cat /for a long time.

Ben /think /all day

about his future exam.

Now they are playing together in the garden.

Present Perfect Continuous

Negative

John has been exercis ing

all morning.

He feels perfect.

NOT

been exercis ing

Mark has

very much recently.

They’re not tired.

They have not been flying for 10 hours, only 3 hours.

They / not /fly for 10 hours.

Make negative

This house is 2 years old.

My grandpa has not been building it for 5 years, only 2 years.

My grandpa / not /build it for 5 years.

- Where’s Kelly?

- Where’s Kelly?

- She’s sleeping.

- She /sleep / for a long time.

- She’s sleeping.

- She has been sleep ing

for a long time.

SAY

Sam and Paul are talking in the hallway.

They /talk /since class ended.

They have been talk ing

since class ended.

-Why are you so happy?

-I have been playing with a ball all day !

-I / play with a ball all day !

SAY

-He’s out of breath. He has been training for 5 hours.

-He’s out of breath. He /train for 5 hours.

-I’m so hot. I have been working in the sun selling ice-cream all day .

-I’m so hot. I /work / all day .

Make 1 sentence out of given 2.

Give all variants that are possible.

Paul has been studying for 4 hours.

He has been studying since 5:00.

Paul is studying.

He began at 5:00 and now it’s 9:00.

We are playing basketball at the moment.

We started 2 hours ago.

We have been playing basketball for

2 hours.

The dogs are barking.

They started 5 minutes ago.

The dogs have been barking for

5 minutes.