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Verb Tenses - Lesson 108

Present Perfect Continuous

Lesson 108 - learn the present perfect continuous tense: how to form it, when to use it, clear examples and a short video from a British English teacher.

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How to form and use the present perfect continuous

How To Form The Present Perfect Continuous:

For positive statements take a subject (I, my friend...) after this put the auxiliary verb have in the corresponding form of the present simple (I have..., my friend has...) then we use the past participle of the verb to be (been) and finally we put the gerund, or present participle, which is formed by taking the compliment and adding ...ing (working). If we put this all together we have: I have been working, my friend has been working. To form negatives place not after the auxiliary verb have. I have not been working. My friend has not been working. To form questions change the position of the auxiliary verb have with the subject. Have I been working? Has my friend been working? The table below sets out the form of the present perfect continuous:

Affirmative Negative Interrogative
I have been working I have not been working Have I been working?
You have been working You have not been working Have you been working?
He has been working He has not been working Has he been working?
She has been working She has not been working Has she been working?
It has been working It has not been working Has it been working?
We have been working We have not been working Have we been working?
You have been working You have not been working Have you been working?
They have been working They have not been working Have they been working?

The following video explains how to form the Present Perfect Continuous:

Watch the video lesson

Video transcript

How to form the present perfect continuous. Take a subject I and then the auxiliary verb to have in the present simple. I have. And then we need the past participle of the verb to be. I have been. And then we need the gerund of our verb, which is made from the compliment, the infinitive without to and adding ...ing, so working. Altogether that gives us: I have been working. The second person: You have been working. He has been working. She's been working. It has been working. We have been working. You have been working. They've been working. To make negatives put the not after the auxiliary have. I have not been working. You have not been working. He has not been working. She has not been working. It hasn't been working. We haven't been working. You haven't been working. They have not been working.To make questions swap the position of the auxiliary have and the subject. Have I been working? Have I been working? Have you been working? Has he been working? Has she been working? Has it been working? Have we been working? Have you been working? Have they been working? So that's how to form the present perfect continuous. Subject, auxiliary verb have in the present simple, past participle of the verb to be, and the gerund. I have been working. In the next video I'll explain when to use the present perfect continuous. See you there.

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This lesson is part of our free English Verb Tenses course. Work through the series in order, or jump to the tense or structure you need next.

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