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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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