Present

Perfect Continuous
3. Interrogative Sentences
The present perfect continuous is used for actions or events that began in the past and continue into
the present. Auxiliary verb (to have) + subject + “been” + verb+ing…?

Grammatical Rules Examples:

Have they been talking for a long time?
Have you been waiting long?
Form
Use
As with the present perfect simple, we use the auxiliary verb “to have” as well as “been” (the past
participle of the verb “to be”) and the verb+ing.
We use the present perfect continuous when we want to express the sense of continuity of an action
that began in the past and which continues into the present or which has just finished.
Subject Auxiliary Verb+ing
We use it to refer to something that we have been doing over a period of time and therefore we use the
prepositions of time “for” and “since”.

I, you, we, they have been talking, studying, waiting…

If we use the present perfect continuous without a time reference, it means “lately” or “recently”.

Examples:
he, she, it has been talking, studying, waiting… I can’t believe it is still raining. It’s been raining for a week now!
John has been working at the bank since 2003.
We’ve been planning our vacation for over a month.
Amanda and Tom have been dating since last June.
He hasn’t been studying enough.
Structure Have you been feeling ok lately?
I’ve been working too much.

1. Affirmative Sentences
Subject + auxiliary verb (to have) + “been” + verb+ing… Note: As we have learned, we cannot use the continuous tenses with some verbs (see a list of verbs and
an explanation here). In these cases, we use the present perfect simple.
Examples:
They have [They’ve] been talking for three hours.
She has [She’s] been studying English since she was 16.
I have [I’ve] been waiting for you for over an hour!

2. Negative Sentences

Subject + auxiliary verb (to have) + “not” + “been” + verbing…

Examples:
They haven’t been talking for more than a few minutes.
She hasn’t been studying English for very long.
Don’t worry, I haven’t been waiting long.

Past Perfect Continuous
3. Interrogative Sentences
The past perfect continuous is used for actions or events that were in process in the past before
another action or event occurred. “Had” + subject + “been” + verb+ing…?

Grammatical Rules Examples:

Had you been studying English for a long time before you went to London?
Had Lindsay been working at the store for a long time when it closed?
Form Had they been traveling for a long time when the airline lost their luggage?

As with the present perfect continuous, we form the past perfect continuous with the auxiliary verb “to Uses
have”, “been” and the verb+ing.
1. We use the past perfect continuous for actions or events that were in process in the past, before
Subject Auxiliary Verb+ing another action or event occurred. The past perfect continuous is used for the action in process and the
past simple for the action that interrupted the action. As we use this tense to refer to something we were
doing over a period of time in the past, we generally use the prepositions of time “for” or “since”.

I, you, he, she, it, we, they had been studying, working, traveling…
Examples:
I’d been working for hours when I fell asleep at my desk.
Frank bought a new car. He’d been looking for one since last year.
We’d been arguing for days when Elizabeth found a solution.
Structure
2. The past perfect continuous is used to show cause and effect in the past.
1. Affirmative Sentences
Subject + “had” + “been” + verb+ing… Examples:
She was tired because she’d been working too much.
Examples: They were angry because they’d been waiting for me for hours.

I had [I’d] been studying English for 2 years when I went to London.
Lindsay had been working at the store since 2005 when it closed.
They were surprised when the airline lost their baggage as they had [they’d] been Note: As we have seen, there are some verbs which may not be used in the continuous tenses. Further
traveling for weeks without a problem.
explanation, as well as a list of such verbs that cannot be used in the continuous tenses, can be found in
the lesson on the continuous verb tenses.
2. Negative Sentences
Subject + “had” + “not” + “been” + verb+ing…

Examples:
I had not [hadn’t] been studying English long when I went to London.
Lindsay had not [hadn’t] been working at the store for long when it closed.
They had not [hadn’t] been traveling long before they had their first problem.

Future Perfect Continuous
Grammatical Rules 2. The use of the future perfect continuous is a way to show cause and effect in the future.

Examples:
Structure
Jessica’s English will be perfect when she moves to England next year as she’ll have been
studying it for five years.
1. Affirmative Sentences I’m not worried about the marathon as I’ll have been running 20 kilometers a day for
several weeks before.
Subject + “will have been” + verbo+ing…
Subject + auxiliary verb (to be) + “going to have been” + verb+ing…

Examples: Note: Keep in mind the rules regarding the use of the perfect tenses and time expressions as well as the
rules regarding verbs in the continuous tenses.
Francis will have been living in Italy for 4 years by the time he finishes his studies.
We’re going to have been working for 24 hours by the time we finish this project.

2. Negative Sentences
Subject + “will” + “not” + “have been” + verbo+ing…
Subject + auxiliary verb (to be) + “not” + “going to have been” + verb+ing…

Examples:
Francis won’t have been living in Italy for long when he finishes his studies.
We’re not going to have been working too long by the time we finish this project.

3. Interrogative Sentences
“Will” + subject + “have been” + verbo+ing…?
Auxiliary verb (to be) + subject + “going to have been” + verb+ing…?

Examples:
Will Francis have been living in Italy for long by the time he finishes his studies?
Are you going to have been working for a long time when you finish this project?

Uses

1. We use the future perfect continuous to show that something is going to continue into the future
until another action or time in the future.

Examples:
Jessica will have been studying English for 5 years when she moves to England next April.
I’m going to have been running 20 kilometers daily for at least a month before the
marathon.
Will you have been living together for long before you get married?