Present Perfect Continuous X Past Perfect Continuous

The Present Perfect Continuous is used:

1) To talk about actions that started in the past and continue up to the present:

I’ve been studying English for 5 years.

Let’s check how the Present Perfect Continuous is formed:

Affirmative: SUBJ + HAVE / HAS + BEEN + ing

Negative: SUBJ + HAVEN’T / HASN’T + BEEN + ING

Question: HAVE / HAS + SUBJ + BEEN + ING?

Some adverbs used with Present Perfect Continuous:

• FOR: I’ve been living here for 10 years.
• SINCE: He has been learning French since he was 10 years old.
• JUST: I’ve just been watching the news.

You can practice Present Perfect Continuous with the following exercises:

Perfect English Grammar

Ego4U

 

The Past Perfect Continuous is used:

1) To talk about actions continuing up to, or just before a moment in the past:

They had a break because they had been working so hard.

Let’s check how the Past Perfect Continuous is formed:

Affirmative: SUBJ + HAD + BEEN + ing

Negative: SUBJ + HADN’T + BEEN + ING

Question: HAD + SUBJ + BEEN + ING?

Some adverbs used with Past Perfect Continuous:

• FOR: He had been studying for hours, so he had a headache.
• SINCE: He had been hoping to get a promotion since last year.
• BEFORE: I’d been surfing on the net before the class started.
• ALL DAY/ NIGHT/ETC: I’d been working all day.

You can practice Past Perfect Continuous with the following exercises:

Perfect English Grammar

Ego4U