Gramma Boost: Mastering the Present Perfect Continuous

Stop the Clock: How Long Have You Been Scrolling?

This week, we’re diving into a powerful grammar point that helps us talk about these ongoing actions: the Present Perfect Continuous tense.

It’s a bit of a mouthful, but it’s incredibly useful for expressing how long something has been happening, especially when it started in the past and is still going on now, or has just recently stopped and its effects are still felt.

Let’s break it down!

Understanding the Present Perfect Continuous

The Present Perfect Continuous tense is formed like this:

Subject + has/have + been + Verb-ing (present participle)

• I / You / We / They have been working

• He / She / It has been working

We use this tense to talk about:

1. An action that started in the past and is still continuing now.

2. An action that recently stopped, but its results are visible or important in the present.

The key here is the duration – how long the action has been taking place. We often use “for” (to state the length of time) and “since” (to state the starting point).

Watch this to help you more…