Present
perfect continuous tense
The present perfect continuous is used to refer to an unspecified time between 'before
now' and 'now'. The speaker is thinking about something that started but
perhaps did not finish in that period of time. He/she is interested in the process as well as the result, and this process
may still be going on, or may have just finished.
Actions
that started in the past and continue in the present
She has been waiting for
you all day (= and she's still waiting now).
I've been working on
this report since eight o'clock this morning (= and I still haven't finished
it).
They have been travelling since
last October (= and they're not home yet).
Actions
that have just finished, but we are interested in the results
She has been cooking since
last night (= and the food on the table looks delicious).
It's been raining (=
and the streets are still wet).
Someone's been eating my
chips (= half of them have gone).
Forming
the present perfect continuous
The present perfect continuous is made up of two elements: the
present perfect of the verb 'to be' (have/has
been), and the present participle of the main verb (base+ing)
The
present perfect continuous tense (also known as the present perfect progressive
tense) shows that something started in the past and is continuing at the
present time. The present perfect continuous is formed using the
construction has/have been + the present participle (root + -ing).
I have
been reading War and Peace for a month now.
In this
sentence, using the present perfect continuous verb tense conveys that
reading War and Peace is
an activity that began sometime in the past and is not yet finished in the
present (which is understandable in this case, given the length of Tolstoy’s
weighty tome).
Recently and lately are words that we often find with verbs in the present
perfect continuous tense.
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