Mariana, one of our Help! Desk readers, wrote me an email in which she asked for help with verb tenses. She has been waiting very patiently for me to answer her question:

Jane


When do I need to use present perfect and present perfect continuous?  In which situations do I need to use each one?

Thanks a lot,


 Mariana

Last year we did a unit on the present perfect tense, so today we are going to add the continuous aspect. That means that we're going to emphasize the present!

The present perfect tense consists of two parts.   To form it, use -

1.               … the proper form of the verb have, and

2.           … the past participle (also known as the
          3^rd part) of the main verb.

The present perfect continuous tense ( also known as present perfect progressive) consists of three parts:

 

1.               … the proper form of the verb have, and

Like present continuous, many present perfect continuous sentences allow you to include a time expression.  This varies on the sentence.  Expressions such as for two hours, lately, recently and many more will fit into your present perfect continuous sentence .

                     e.g.  How have you been feeling lately?
 
                             How've you been feeling lately?

Here are some examples of present perfect continuous from our students' writing:

I know I could do better if I tried harder...I'm getting lazier.  I have been losing my enthusiasm as I grow older.  (Lately) I've been giving up easily and I haven't been able to stick to anything I do.

If you have any questions about this lesson, or if you have been following the tennis matches of the USOpen on TV (this month), please email me your questions and comments!

So from the ESL Help Desk, thanks for listening to us this week, and remember to email us your questions about English grammar by sending us a comment on our blog.