The Present Perfect Continuous Tense

• Where’s Kelly?
• She’s sleeping.
• She’s been sleeping for a long time.
• Sam and Paul are talking in the hallway. They
• have been talking
• since their class ended.

Difference in Meaning:

• UNLIKE the Present Perfect, the Present Perfect Continuous is never used to talk about recently finished actions.
• Susan has mopped the floor.
• -present perfect
• (recently finished)
• 2) Susan has been mopping the floor for 15 minutes.
• -p.p. continuous; not finished yet

Difference in Meaning:

• The present perfect focuses more on the result of the action while the present perfect continuous focuses more on the action itself.
• Tom and Lucy have been painting
• all morning! (focus on the activity)
• They have just painted the living
• room. Doesn’t it look great?
• (focus on the result)

Note! In English, we don’t usually use stative (non-action) verbs with continuous tenses.

• Note! In English, we don’t usually use stative (non-action) verbs with continuous tenses.
• Example:
• Jean got a headache two hours ago.
• She still has a headache now.

• Because “have” is a stative verb, we don’t like to put it in continuous form; so instead, we use present perfect:
• Jean has had a headache for two hours.

• She has been having a headache for two hours.

Review:

• Review:
• The Present Perfect and the Present Perfect Continuous can be often be used in the same circumstance.-especially with the verbs live, work, and study (+when we use since/for)
• Example:
• 1) I have worked at ECC for many years.
• -present perfect
• 2) I have been working at ECC for many years.
• -present perfect continuous
• -In this case, both actions started in the past and continue up to the present time.