The Present Perfect vs The Present Perfect Continuous ALL differences

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hello everyone

and welcome back to english with lucy

today i have got a grammar lesson for

you we are going to be looking

at two very similar and confusing tenses

i know that a lot of my students

struggle with these take a look at these

two sentences i have lived in england

for three years

i have been living in england for three

years

do they mean the same thing today we are

looking at the present perfect

and the present perfect continuous

in some situations they mean the same

thing and in other situations they mean

different things there’s a lot to cover

in this lesson

but i want to let you know that to

further help your understanding and your

learning journey

i have created a free pdf that goes with

this lesson it’s got

everything we’re going to cover and it’s

got a quiz

so you can check your understanding if

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quiz

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let’s get started with the lesson we use

the present perfect and the present

perfect continuous for both finished and

unfinished actions

let’s take a quick look at how we form

them

before we start comparing them so the

present perfect

is have has plus the past

participle i have worked

the negative have and has plus

not plus the past participle i have

not worked and as a question have or has

plus the subject plus the past

participle

have i worked now let’s take a look at

how we form

the present perfect continuous the

positive

is has or has plus

been plus verb ing

i have been working the negative

we just put in a not has or have

not been verb ing i have

not been working and as a question we

have

has or have plus subject plus

being plus a verb ing have i been

working

it’s important to note that we cannot

use the present perfect continuous

with stative verbs stative verbs

don’t refer to a physical action they

express something that is permanent they

express a state or a condition

to like to love to believe to know to

understand

you can say i’ve known her for years

you cannot say i’ve been knowing her for

years

you can say i’ve been here for a while

you cannot say

i’ve been being here for a while

just so that’s clear we can use the

present perfect and the present perfect

continuous

to talk about actions unfinished actions

that started in the past and are still

true now

we often use them with since and for i

have lived in

england for three years i have been

studying english since 2003

i’ve been studying english since 2017.

now sometimes especially with the verbs

study live and work there

is no real difference in meaning between

the two

i’ve lived in england for three years

i’ve been living in england for three

years

they mean the same thing i’ve studied

english since 2017.

i’ve been studying english since 2017

again they mean the same thing she has

worked here for six months

she has been working here for six months

once again they mean the same thing so i

hope that clears up some of your doubts

unfortunately sometimes there is

a difference in meaning between these

two tenses the present perfect

and the present perfect continuous i’m

going to discuss

four situations where there is a

difference in meaning

number one the present perfect

continuous can be used to

emphasize the amount or length of time

that has passed

whereas the present perfect is generally

neutral

it might sound complicated but take a

look at these

two sentences she’s been working for

hours

she has worked for hours

she’s been working shows more emphasis

about the hours that have passed it’s a

very subtle difference but it’s there

the second situation the present perfect

is commonly used to talk about how much

or how many but this is impossible

with the present perfect continuous let

me show you

she has eaten three pieces of toast this

morning

that sentence is perfectly fine let’s

try it with the present perfect

continuous

she has been eating three pieces of

toast this morning

it doesn’t work you can’t use it he’s

drunk

seven cups of coffee this morning i hope

not

poor guy you cannot say he has been

drinking seven cups of coffee this

morning

it has to be the present perfect when

talking about how much

or how many let’s take a look at the

third situation the present perfect

continuous often focuses on the action

itself whereas the present perfect

focuses on the completion of the action

again it’s much

easier to see this written out than to

listen to an explanation

so i’ll give you some examples take a

look at these two sentences

i’ve been watching the tv series you

recommended

i’ve watched the tv series you

recommended

with the first one i’ve been watching

i’m

showing that i am still watching it i

haven’t

finished the action yet whereas with the

second one

i’ve watched i’m telling you that i have

finished watching it

sometimes it’s not quite as obvious

she’s been seeing a therapist

she’s seen a therapist with she’s been

seeing it implies that her treatment

is ongoing she’s still seeing that

therapist

she’s seen a therapist means she’s seen

one

and now she may have stopped seeing one

or her treatment has ended

another thing to note is that with the

present perfect we can

use yet and already i know lots of you

struggle with

for since yet and already we’ve

discussed for and since

now yet and already i have seen the film

already or i’ve already seen the film

you can put already at the end or you

can put it between

havel has and the participle i have

already seen a common mistake that i

hear

is i have seen already the film that

doesn’t we would understand you but it

doesn’t quite sound right

and yet this goes at the end have you

seen the film yet

no i haven’t seen it yet

you can put yet between have has

and the participle i haven’t yet seen it

but it sounds quite old-fashioned i

haven’t yet gone i haven’t yet seen it

it sounds nice it sounds

very formal and old-fashioned like you’d

read in an

old book in the question form it doesn’t

sound right at all

have you yet seen the film no don’t use

that

sometimes we use the difference between

the present perfect and the present

perfect continuous

to talk about different kinds of results

in the present

again it’s much easier to see this in an

example so i will provide those

i’ve done all of my chores so i can come

out tonight

we use the present perfect when the

result comes

from the action being finished i can

come out tonight

because i’ve finished my chores

it’s completed i’ve been doing my chores

so i’m exhausted we use the present

perfect continuous

when the result comes from doing the

action itself

i am exhausted from carrying out

all of my chores another example

i’ve prepared a big dinner so you can

come over

i’ve been preparing a big dinner so all

of my pans are dirty

my pans are dirty as a result of the

preparation

but you can come over because i finished

preparing the dinner

in the first example with the present

perfect you can come over because i

finished preparing my dinner in the

second example with the present perfect

continuous

all of my pans are dirty because of the

preparation of my dinner

the action of doing it finally

we can use the present perfect

continuous to talk about situations that

aren’t

permanent things that are not usual i’ve

been

sleeping badly i don’t normally sleep

badly

but recently i’ve been sleeping badly

normally i buy lunch at the canteen

but i’ve been bringing lunch from home

i’ve been getting up early

to work out i don’t usually do this but

recently i have been doing this

right that is the grammar explanation

those the differences between the

present perfect and the present perfect

continuous

now it’s time to check your

understanding i have created a quiz

it’s in the pdf that i’ve created that

covers everything in this lesson i know

it’s been a complicated lesson

so i hope having some notes will help

you if you’d like to download it for

free

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excited by it

you can click on words containing those

furnims and hear me say them too

e no air

i will see you soon for another lesson

has all have plus subject

plus b i’m struggling here

we cannot use the present perfect

conditional

conditional sorry we can use them with

synth synth have i pronounced

stative correctly yes state of

me doubting myself because i’m scarred

with people calling me out on the

internet

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okay

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you