The Present Perfect Continuous Tense

Past participle for irregular verbs:

• = depends on the particular verb.
• Irregular verbs do not take –ed in the simple past. For these verbs, you must memorize the past participle form. Do you know the past participle for these verbs?

• be

• know

• get

• Note: The simple past and the past participle forms are the same for certain verbs.
• (i.e., teach, bring, have, send)

2) The Present Perfect Continuous Tense

• The present perfect continuous is often very similar in meaning to the present perfect tense.
• Just like the Present Perfect, we can use this grammar to talk about something that started in the past, but is still happening.
• But the present perfect continuous focuses more on the continuous action. The emphasis is on the duration of the action.

Example:

• It began raining two hours ago.
• It is STILL raining now.
• *It has been raining for two hours.
• This is the present
• perfect continuous
• tense.

Present Perfect Continuous Form:

• This grammar has 3 parts:

• HAS
• or
• HAVE

• +

• BEEN

• +

• verb in
• -ING

Negative Form:

• hasn’t (=has not) been +–ing
• haven’t (=have not) been +–ing
• John has not been living in L.A. for very long. (or hasn’t been living)
• I have not been exercising very much recently.
• (or haven’t been exercising)

More Examples of P.P. Continuous:

• Jane started to work in her garden at 8:00 this morning. Now it is 12:00.
• She has been working in her garden for 4 hours!
• Wow! That’s a long time!