Present Perfect Tense Simple or Continuous Basic English Grammar

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hi everybody my name is Alisha in this

lesson I’m going to talk about the

difference between the present perfect

tense and the present perfect continuous

tense many people ask about the

difference between these two so I’m

going to talk about how to make these

tenses and sometimes when you might want

to use them so let’s get started

first of all I want to begin with sort

of a visual of these two grammar points

I’m going to start with the present

perfect tense here though

so you might have seen another video on

this channel about the present perfect

tense how to use it how to make it but

I’m going to review quickly here the

present perfect tense I’m going to talk

about two uses of the present perfect

tense they are first that we use the

present perfect tense to express life

experience at a nonspecific time in the

past so this means something that we did

in the past meaning before the present

time here on a timeline but the exact

point in time is not important so we use

this for perhaps our job experience or

our travel experience for example with

expressions like I have been to France

or I have worked at XYZ company for

example the specific time is not

important so we can use the present

perfect tense to describe those things

the second point I want to talk about

with the present perfect tense is how we

use it to refer to an action that

started in the past and that continues

to the present or the effects of that

action started in the past and continue

to the present rather so on our timeline

it sort of looks a little bit like this

some actions started in the past and the

action has continued to the present in

other words so these are the two points

I want to talk about with the present

perfect tense let’s take a look then to

review how to make the present perfect

tense when you’re making a statement

with the present perfect

you might use a pattern like this so if

your subject is I we you are they will

use that plus half plus the past

participle form of a verb you might use

for or since depending on the the point

that you’re using here and you’ll finish

the sentence with the extra information

if your subject however is he or she or

it will use has instead of have and then

follow it with the past participle form

of the verb

perhaps for or since depending on your

sentence and your information so some

examples of this are I have been to

Italy so have follows this pattern and

bin is the past participle form of the

verb be I have been to Italy in this one

he has studied English for six months so

here I’m using 0.1 here I’m using point

two in this in this bullet-pointed list

so this is a general life experience I

have been to Italy second this is an

action that started in the past and that

continues to the present he has studied

English for six months so this is an

action that’s probably still in progress

okay let’s look at then some questions I

want to review how to make questions

with this tense so for simple yes and no

questions we can use patterns like this

has if your subject is he or she or it

will begin with pass if your subject is

I we you or they will begin with have so

let’s start with this has he she or it

plus the past participle form of the

verb plus again this for or since

perhaps and then your extra information

at the end of the sentence

with have it’s the same so have I we you

were they plus past participle verb and

may be for or since so a couple examples

of this has she finished her homework so

here has and my subject is she has she

finished as the past participle form of

the verb finish has she finished her

homework and have they cleaned up the

house so these are questions asking has

this action been completed so we’ve

for now in other words these two actions

in this case her homework and the

housecleaning are they finished yes or

no but the time at which the action was

finished is not so important in these

questions the speaker the person asking

the question only wants to know is it

finished

is it not finished that’s it so the

specific time is not important that’s

why the present perfect tense is being

used to ask the question let’s look at a

different question pattern this is when

you want to get information you’re using

a question word like who which what how

and so on so we begin with our question

word and then we follow the same pattern

we saw up here so for example we could

use question word Plus has he and past

participle verb form plus four or since

perhaps and our extra information or

question word plus have and our i we you

they past participle verb and for or

since so one great example of this is

where have you been where have you been

so again the speaker is asking in the in

the period of time before the present

where was the listener where have you

been in this period of time so this is a

very common question so we use these

these types of questions just to ask

about things that happened or maybe that

continued to happen before the present

but maybe not at a specific point in

time also please keep in mind we use for

and since commonly with this point right

here the continuing action point

remember we use for before a length of

time like for three years for five hours

and we use since to refer to a specific

point in time okay so with that in mind

let’s take a look then at the present

perfect continuous tense so present

perfect continuous tense we use this for

actions that started in the past and

continued to the present yes so just

like this one that we talked about here

but this point it emphasizes a

continuing action so we use this for

something that we’re putting our effort

into now

our focus into right now or for an

interrupted action for example so I’ll

introduce some examples here in just a

moment to make the present perfect

continuous the pattern is quite similar

to the present perfect tense we have

this same change with the subject

depending on the subject we’ll use i we

you they plus half then we’ll use bin

but then we’ll follow it instead of with

the past participle form of the verb

will use the progressive or the content

continuous form of the verb the ing form

of the verb and here we can use for or

since

and the ending information same thing

with he she and its subjects the only

difference is we’ll use has instead of

half here and then we’ll follow it with

bin progressive form of the verb and for

or since depending on your statement so

let’s take a look a couple examples here

I’ve been teaching this lesson for five

minutes

maybe so here I’m saying this lesson is

in progress this lesson is continuing

and I’m using four to show the length of

time I’m making a guess there but that’s

roughly or that’s about how long this

lesson has been continuing for I imagine

so I use the progressive in the past

perfect tense to show that so it’s an

action that started in the past and it

continues to now and right now it’s the

focus of my attention right now I’m

focusing everything on teaching this

lesson so I want to emphasize that

therefore I use the progressive tense

here in the past perfect let’s look at

another one he’s been studying all

morning he’s been studying all morning

this sentence sounds like the he in the

sentence is maybe still studying so this

is something he’s put his effort into

and his focus into all morning long so

when we want to really emphasize

someone’s focus or someone’s effort we

can use the present perfect continuous

tense also you might notice I’ve used

this expression all morning at the end

of

the sentence when you’re using the

progressive or the continuous version of

the past perfect you can end your

sentence with like all morning or all

night all afternoon lately or recently

to talk about the period of time that

you’ve been focusing or the period of

time that you want to emphasize that

action was continuing we’ll see another

example later okay

let’s look at those some questions using

the present perfect continuous so just

as we saw with the present perfect tense

we’ll begin with have or has for some

simple yes or no questions and then

depending on the subject will change

this this initial this initial word have

or has and then we’ll again we’ll use

bin plus the progressive form of a verb

and perhaps for or since before our

concluding information so some examples

first has he been sleeping all day

so here I’ve used has because my subject

is he I’ve used bin and the progressive

form of sleeping so sleep becomes

sleeping has he been sleeping all day

meaning in this period of time has he

been sleeping continuously this is the

question has he been sleeping all day so

probably he the person in this sentence

is still sleeping has he been sleeping

all day so let’s look at one more

example if this kind of question pattern

then so another one would be have they

been working on the project so here I’ve

used half because I’m using the word

they here so a group of people and again

I’m using bin and working on the project

have they been working on the project

meaning from some point in time in the

past have they may be a team or a group

of people continuously so non-stop have

they been working so this question

emphasizes their continued progress

their continued work on the project okay

let’s finish up with a different kind of

question pattern so again when you use a

question word like who which what or how

for example we can use has or have again

here depending on the subject of the

sentence so I think that this part is

the same as the question pattern we just

talked about so let’s just take a look

at the example sentences here

first one how have you been exercising

lately how have you been exercising

lately so this how by the way means in

what way have you been exercising lately

so in this case the speaker probably

knows that the listener has been

exercising lately and the speaker wants

to know how meaning in what way so how

have you been exercising lately meaning

in the past up until now in this period

continuously what has been your method

of exercise or what’s the way you’ve

been exercising this is what the speaker

is asking in the last one where has he

been keeping his files so here my

question word is where has he been again

and keeping in this case keeping is in

the progressive or the continuous tense

where has he been keeping his files so

in this sentence for example maybe

someone is searching for some files or

some data maybe a colleague is absent

for example and the speaker wants to

know where has he been keeping so from

the past until now where has he been

keeping his files so when we want to

emphasize something that started in the

past continues to the present or there’s

something we’re really focusing our

effort or our energy on we can use the

present perfect continuous tense to do

that so if you want to emphasize maybe

the completion of an action something

that has finished we can use the present

perfect tense like he has studied

English for six months and he has been

studying English for six months they yes

they communicate the same thing but

using he has studied English for six

months

doesn’t sound like so much effort

continues to be put into the study if

you want to really emphasize your effort

you should use the progressive form he

has been studying English for six months

sounds like it’s continuing it sounds

like there’s more focus on that act

so try to keep this slight difference in

mind and if you really want to emphasize

your effort and your focus try using the

continuous form of the present perfect

tense instead of just the present

perfect so I hope that this was helpful

for you if you have any questions or

comments or if you’d like to try to make

an example sentence please feel free to

do so in the comment section below this

video

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will see you again soon bye bye

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