Present perfect and present perfect continius belong to the present tense group. Present Perfect allows you to talk about what happened before the moment of speaking.
With the help of Present Perfect Continuous, they talk about actions that have recently taken place and may be happening now. The emphasis in this tense is on the action and its duration.
Rules for using tenses
Present perfect and present continious are two ways to talk about actions that affect the present, starting in the past. With the help of the perfect put emphasis on the result of the action, the continius emphasizes the duration of the process. In addition, Perfect Continuous can continue in the present, and Perfect serves to unambiguously indicate the past.
Features of use make it easy to distinguish between present perfect and present perfect continius. Schemes for compiling sentences for two tenses are presented in the table.
| Present Perfect | Present Perfect Continuous | |
| Statement | subject + have/has + | |
|
verb ending -ed (third form of the verb) |
been + verb ending -ing | |
|
I have played it today. I played this today. |
I have been playing it all day. I play this all day. |
|
| Denial | subject + have/has + not | |
| verb ending -ed (third form of the verb) | been + verb ending -ing | |
|
I have not worked. I didn't work. |
I have not been working since December. I have not been working since December. |
|
| Question | (question word) + have/has + subject | |
| verb ending -ed (third form of the verb) | been + verb ending -ing | |
|
Have you read anything today? Did you read anything today? |
Have you been reading anything lately? Are you reading anything lately? |
|
What ended recently
Present Perfect is always used in connection with the moment of speech, while indicating the past. This time is needed for the description:
- Continued actions or situations that are relevant in the present: I have lived in Moscow since 1984 (I have been living in Moscow since 1984).
- Actions that occurred in the period that has not yet ended: I haven't shaved today (I haven't shaved today ("today" has not yetended))
- Repeated actions that were committed during an indeterminate period in the past: I have visited U. K. nine times (I have been to the UK nine times).
- Actions that were completed just recently, literally right now: I have just learned (I just learned).
- Actions that are not related to a specific period of time, in which only the result is important: I have added a brief conclusion (I added a brief conclusion).
| I/you/we/they | I have=I've | I have not=I haven't |
| She/he/it | She has=She's | She has not=She hasn't |
Tense is most often used to indicate the completion to the present moment of what is being said in the statement. For example, previous experiences are emphasized. On the other hand, using the same tense, one can say that a person has never met and experienced.
Why completed?
It is easy to understand the logic of the use of time through a literal translation: I have added a brief conclusion - I have added a brief conclusion. It turns out that the person is talking about what experience he has accumulated to date and his experience includes the text he wrote.
The need to use this particular tense is easiest to determine in context. The Present Perfect formulates what led to the present state of affairs, or whataffects the present.
Questions using this tense allow you to find out what the person has done so far and what has not yet been done. To determine whether to use time, you can also focus on adverbs (already, never, ever, yet). When you can substitute "already" or "still" in a sentence, the present perfect is most often used.
| I have answered them! | I answered them! |
| You have already broken this watch. | You already broke the clock. |
| I've never stolen anything. | I never stole anything. |
| I haven't met anybody of that sort yet. | I've never met anyone like this. |
| Has your course started yet? | Have you started your course yet? |
| Have you already seen them? | Have you seen them yet? |
What recently lasted
In English, the present perfect continious allows you to focus on the duration of an action that began in the past, but is significant in the present. It is relevant in statements like: I have been doing this for so long.
The Oxford Grammar provides an illustration of the use of tense. The people in line are waiting for the bus, and the first person in line thinks, "We've been waiting twenty minutes." The emphasis in the sentence is on the length of the wait.
This time is more specific andused less frequently. For the present perfect continuousus, the rules and examples of use are limited to only two types of situations: completed and unfinished until the moment of speaking.
| Ended before speech (and somehow affects the present) | It has been raining. |
It was raining. (if it had still rained or had passed a long time ago, the proposal would have been formulated in a different tense) |
| Continues into speech | We've been standing here for ages. | We've been standing here forever. |
Duration indicators
The duration of the action is often directly indicated (through for and since) and is an indicator of the present perfect continus. Rules and examples of sentence formation using how long, for, since, recently/lately and other features:
- Questions about duration and nature of activity: How long have you been walking? (How long have you been walking?), What have you been discussing? (What are you discussing?).
- For - indicates the exact amount of time the action lasted: I've been calling you for an hour.
- Since - refers to the point in time in the past when the action started: I have been waiting since sun-up. (I've been waiting since dawn).
- Signal expressions in Russian: all evening / all morning, until […]; all day / evening, before […].
- Tense is often used to express annoyance or surprise.
- Not used with state verbs.
| I/you/we/they | You have been worrying=You've been worrying | You haven't been worrying | Have you been worrying? |
| She/he/it | She has been worrying=She's been worrying | She hasn't been worrying | Has she been worrying? |
Time difference
Now we can formulate the main difference between the present perfect and the present perfect continius: with the help of Present Perfect, they emphasize that something happened, implying a connection with the present moment, and with the help of Present Perfect Continuous, that something happened and is happening or has recently ended.
- He has already fixed this bike;
- He has been fixing the bike since Monday.
Besides, present perfect and present perfect continius are used with actions of different duration. The first is more often used with long actions, and the second - with short actions.
The castle has stood on the hill for hundreds of years
I've been avoiding him all weekend.
With the help of two tenses, you can cover everything that relates to actions that are connected both with the present and the past. They are used with similaradverbs, but the present perfect can be used with state verbs and indicates a specific result.
