Grammar

Present perfect continuous and present perfect

Past perfect continuous and past continuous

Present perfect continuous

• expresses an activity in progress until recently or until the time of speaking

Have you been working in the garden all day?

She’s been writing the book for decades and it’s finally finished

Present perfect continuous

• when drawing a conclusion, i.e. to complain or criticize

Who’s been messing around with my papers?

You’ve been eating junk food again, haven’t you?

Present perfect continuous

• to emphasize an ongoing and repeated activity

Joseph has been kicking a football against the wall all day.

The workers have been calling for a strike.

Present perfect

• to show something that has recently finished if we can still see its results

He’s broken his finger and is in a lot of pain.

Present perfect

• to show the results of an activity or circumstance

Prices have increased by 7%

I’ve used three tins of paint on the kitchen walls.

Past perfect continuous

• for something that was in progress recently before or up to a past point in time

I’d been finishing some work in the garden when Sue arrived.

Past perfect continuous

• situation or activity that went on before a particular past time

She felt terrible during the interview because she had been suffering from the flu since Thursday.

We’d been driving for about an hourwhen the engine suddenly stopped.

Past perfect

• how many times

I had stayed in the hotel twice in the 1980s.

Past perfect

• describing states

We had owned the car for 6 months before we discovered it didn’t run.