Present Perfect Continuous or Progressive

Objectives of today’s lesson:

In this lesson, Learn English with Julia presents to you “Present Perfect Continuous”, in order for you to:

• discover present perfect continuous examples
• differentiate present perfect continuous vs present perfect
• understand the present perfect continuous tense structure
• complete some present perfect continuous exercises

Video Script:

Hi and welcome to this video on the present perfect continuous.

Now this is a recap. Why is it called present perfect continuous?

It’s because it contains a present (have), something that makes it perfect (a past participle) and continuous (it contains an -ing Form / a present participle) the present perfect continuous.

It is also called present perfect progressive.

Now let’s look at how its formed in the positive form

we say “I have been learning” or “I’ve been learning”

if you prefer the contracted form

you have been learning

you’ve been learning

he has been learning

he’s been learning

and so on.

The negative form: you can say

I have not been learning

or I haven’t been learning

and so on.

Just watch out for the third person singular: “has”

otherwise it’s always “have”

now the question form

I have given you an example here

Have I not been learning?

I could also say:

Haven’t I been learning? or Have I been learning?

If I use the positive question form

When do I use the present perfect continuous?

I use it for duration or actions in the past that are recent

and of which the influence is still felt in the present.

So the duration, we’ll see for example:

I have been learning English for four years. For example.

Something recent: we could say:

He has been practising a lot lately.

So these were the different signal works that work very well with the present perfect continuous:

all…, the whole…, for…, since…

recently, lately…

A few hints now for this class:

Don’t forget that not all the verbs can be used in this particular tense.

We can’t say for example: “I have been having a great time”*

You’d have to use another tense and say for example:

I’ve had a great time = I have had a great time.

So that is the present perfect.

Don’t forget that these words are called non continuous verbs like “to have”.

It can’t be used in this tense.

When we have such complex tenses don’t forget where to position your adverb in the sentence.

I also recommend you review the spelling of your present participle.

There’s a video on that so it’ll refresh your knowledge of phonetics and also spelling.

Grammar Quiz:

Keywords listed in English:

• present perfect continuous or present perfect progressive
• past participle
• present participle or -ING form

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