The present perfect continuous expresses action that started in the past and is still happening now or has just finished.
Imagine you are sitting in the living room and your sister is at the table with books everywhere. She’s been there for hours. In this case, you can say:
May be she started studying at 8 a.m. and she is still studying at the time of speaking.
Now imagine your friend walks into the room. He is breathing heavily, his face is red, and he is wiping sweat from his forehead. You can ask him:
Here, the action is already finished, but the effects are still visible because he is out of breath, sweaty, and tired. The result is happening now, even if the action has stopped.
Let us study another example. Suppose you walk into a room and notice that your sister has red, puffy eyes and there are tissues on the table. Her voice sounds shaky. You might say:
She is not crying anymore, but you can tell she was. The evidence is still noticeable (watery eyes, sniffles, tissues).
| Form | Structure | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Affirmative | Subject + have/has + been + verb(-ing) | I have been waiting for you for three hours. |
| Negative | Subject + have/has + not + been + verb(-ing) | She has not been feeling well lately. |
| Interrogative | Have/has + subject + been + verb(-ing)? | Have you been sleeping? |
| Interrogative negative | Have/Has + subject + not + been + verb(-ing)? | Hasn’t he been attending the meetings? |
In the above examples, notice that the duration of the action is often indicated by time expressions such as for the last few hours/days/weeks.
Remember that the present perfect continuous describes actions that began in the past and are still ongoing or have recently finished. It can be used with the following adverbs of frequency to express annoyance or criticism:
The first sentence implies that the person is currently working hard, and that this effort has continued over a certain period of time. The second sentence suggests continual effort as well, but the use of constantly may carry a tone of criticism or frustration, depending on the context.
Students often confuse the present perfect continuous and the present perfect simple. While both are used to talk about actions or states that began in the past and continue into the present, there is a key difference:
Compare the following examples:
Note, though, that in some situations, either form can be used without changing the meaning:
Verbs of mental process describe cognitive mental actions, such as think, believe, know, like, and understand. They are typically stative verbs and should not be used in present perfect continuous. An exception is the verb think.
