FORM

person + has/have + been + gerun (verb with -ing ending) + the rest of the sentence

• I have been living here for 7 years.

• Has it been raining in Moscow for several days?

 

USE

1. Duration from the Past Until Now

We use the Present Perfect Continuous to show that something started in the past and has continued up until now. "For five minutes," "for two weeks," and "since Tuesday" are all durations which can be used with the Present Perfect Continuous.

• I have been reading the book for the last 2 hours.

• Why haven't you been laying in bed for the last week?

 

2. Recently, Lately

You can also use the Present Perfect Continuous WITHOUT a duration such as "for two weeks." Without the duration, the tense has a more general meaning of "lately." We often use the words "lately" or "recently" to emphasize this meaning.

• She has been surfing too much in the Internet recently.

• Lately, they have been learning a lot.

3. Active/Passive Voice

• We have been writing a story recently. ACTIVE

• The story has been being written by us recently.. PASSIVE

 

More exercises on the Present Perfect Continuous can be found in our forum and on the www.aling.pl!