Present Perfect and Present Continuous

Present Perfect and Present Continuous

What do we use them for?

Unfinished actions or states

What tense do we use?

We use present perfect simple with state verbs.

• We've owned this car for several years and it has never broken down.

• She's known them since they were children. they're very good friends.

Open Ended

Can you provide your own example?

We use the Present Perfect Continuous with action verbs.

• How long have you been waiting?

• I've been working on my essay since 6 o'clock.

• He's been playing very well so far in this match.

Tip

Some verbs can be used as action verbs or state verbs with no important change of meaning:

How long have you worked here? / How long have you been working here?

Open Ended

Can you provide your own example?

Recent past actions with present results.

What tense do we use?

We use the present perfect simple when completing an action has an result now:

• I've just finished my essay (Result of finishing writing = I can relax, I can hand in the work, etc)

Open Ended

Can you provide your own example?

We use the Present Perfect Continuous when doing an activity has a result now:

• I'm tired because I've been writing an essay (Result of writing = I'm tired)

Open Ended

Can you provide an example?

New habits and repeated actions

when do we use which tense?

We use the Present Perfect Continuous to describe repeated activities which started recently:

• I've been doing a lot of exercise lately (in the past I didn't do much exercise)

• She's been coming to the gym with me three times as week (recently)

Open Ended

Can you provide your own example?