Today we've got a grammar lesson for you we're going to look at the
present perfect continuous. Now, this is an important piece of grammar and you need
to know it well and it's important for me to to get the explanation right so
I've been thinking about this all day. I'd be doing research. I've been drinking
coffee and I've been working really hard and now I'm going to share with you all
I know and by the end of this video I promise you, I promise you
you'll know it perfectly too so stay tuned
Hello and welcome to LetThemTalk the channel that goes deeper into everything
about the English language so the present perfect continuous it talks
about an action that starts in the past and continues up to the present or just
before the present. Now have a look at this graph. This is the past and this is now
...... you know what let's look at this a different way. Okay think of it this
way. So this is a story of a romance between the handsome present perfect
tense and the beautiful present continuous and they have a child and
they call that child the Present Perfect Continuous yes that's right this is
probably the best way to think about the present perfect continuous it's a mix
between these two tenses. It sounds a bit strange but stay with me I have been
teaching English for 15 years and I'll show you what I mean so the present
continuous is a present tense while the present perfect, despite its name, is a
past tense most of the time yes that's right the present perfect is in fact a
past tense we'll look at some exceptions later and the present perfect
continuous is both a present and the past tense at the same time. So the
present perfect continuous has inherited its present qualities from the present
continuous "The Mummy" if you like in this story and it's past qualities from the
present perfect "The Daddy" and the present perfect continuous shares the
features of both its parents. So, answer the following questions. What
am i doing? I'm drinking coffee. in the present continuous I'm drinking coffee
What am i doing? I'm writing. What am i doing? that's right I'm thinking.
I'm waiting. So you get the idea that's the present continuous. Now any
verb that you can use in the present continuous you can also use in the
present perfect continuous. Yes that's very important any verb you can use in
the present continuous you can also use in the present perfect continuous but
instead of talking about this moment now we are linking the past until now or
just before now. So let's look at those examples I gave you before. So
What am i doing? I'm drinking coffee. How long have you been drinking coffee? I've
been drinking coffee for the last half hour what am i doing? I'm writing. How
long have you been writing? I've been writing for two hours. What are you doing?
I'm thinking. How long have you been thinking? I've been thinking about this
for a long time. What am i doing? I'm waiting. How long have you been
waiting? I've been waiting for two hours for ages. So all the verbs you can
use in the present continuous you can use in the present perfect continuous
and of course verbs that you cannot use in the present continuous you
cannot use in the present perfect continuous now so those verbs that you
cannot use in a continuous tense present continuous or present perfect continuous
are called "stative verbs" yes that's right stative verbs you may have
heard the term and these are verbs that are states. You can find a list of
stative verbs on the internet but in my opinion most of the time you don't need
to memorize them by listening to English speakers and reading in English you'll
get the idea of what is a stative verb and not a stative verb and it'll come
naturally. So for example "I've known John for five years" So the verb to know
is a stative verb the state of knowing somebody so you cannot say "I've been
knowing John" for five years "I've had this car for ten years"
Possession is a state you do not
say "I've been having this car for ten years" but I'm sure you already know that
Be careful though there are some verbs which are both stative and non-stative
I'll just give you one example the verb TO THINK so if you're
considering an idea then this is an action verb. I'm considering an idea
"I'm thinking about becoming a vegetarian" so you can use it in the continuous
tense but when you have an opinion about something and THINK is a stative verb
"I think you're beautiful" So be aware of that. So now let's
have a look at the present perfect and see how this plays out in this wonderful
romance. So most of the time the present perfect is, in fact, a
past tense. It talks about experiences and actions in the past let's have a
look at some examples. "I've been to Malaysia" As a past experience "I've
seen this film" a past action or past experience "I've cleaned my shoes" it's a
past action "she's never met the Queen" past experience that didn't happen. Now
the present perfect continuous usually refers to things that include the
present time whereas the present perfect is just about the past "I've been reading
this book" So it's not finished "I've read this book" it was completed
sometime in the past "I've forgotten my keys" it happened in the past "I've been looking
for my keys for the last hour and I'm still looking for them" so that's
including the present time. So the present perfect is a past tense and the
present perfect continuous is a past tense that also includes present time.
We will look at some exceptions in a moment so the present
perfect continuous we can use for continuous actions in the past that
continue until the present moment. "I've been waiting for this bus for an hour".
That's a continuous action. You can
also use a present perfect continuous for repetitive actions that continue up
to now. "I've been playing tennis since I was 15" So that's not a
continuous action it's a repetitive action you've done it many times until
the present time. Now there are a small number of verbs that may be used
both in the present perfect continuous or the present perfect TO LIVE for
example and here, by the way, there is there is little change of meaning "I've
been living in this apartment for five years" but if you've been in the place a
long time you might consider the situation as a
state of something permanent rather than an action "I've lived in this town all my
life" so be aware that you might hear both forms from native speakers for the
verb TO LIVE and the verb TO WORK follows the same pattern "I've been
working here for six months" but maybe the person who's working considers his job
something permanent so might say something like "I've worked here since I
left University" that's a present perfect
and it's also correct so both are correct "I've been working here" and "I've
worked here" it's just what the speaker is trying to convey the message is
trying to say. So if you think something is permanent you can use the
present perfect but as I said both are correct. Sometimes you can use the
present perfect continuous for past actions but only in these conditions one
1. the action happened recently and 2. the results of the actions are clear and
they are important to us now. And this form we often use to give
to explanations to things as to why something has happened So let's
look at some examples "I'm tired because I've been working all day"
the work is finished but I'm still tired so I say "I'm tired because I've
been working all day". "She's been drinking wine and now she's drunk"
So she stopped drinking wine but she's still drunk
"The streets are wet because it's been raining". It's still wet that's
important to us now and you can sometimes use it with a negative
"You haven't been studying you've been partying and now you're going to fail your exam".
So there you are that was a beautiful story wasn't it? and we also
have a video about the past perfect continuous
and a video about the difference between the present perfect and the past simple
and I'll put a link to both videos in the description so thank you for
watching and as always stay mellow and I'll see you in the next video