Use the Present Perfect Continuous for an activity that started in the past and is still going on, or has just stopped and left a visible result: I've been waiting for an hour. You're out of breath: have you been running? Form: have / has been + -ing.
I have been learning English for two years.
A bar that starts in the past and runs right up to NOW. The focus is on the activity and how long it has been going on.
| Positive | I've been working. · She's been working. |
|---|---|
| Negative | I haven't been working. · She hasn't been working. |
| Question | Have you been working? · Has she been working? |
We've been waiting for 40 minutes.
With for, since and How long…?: an activity that's still going on.
I'm tired because I've been working all day.
The activity may have just stopped, but you can see or feel its effect now.
She's been calling me a lot recently.
Something happening again and again over a recent period.
Words that often go with this tense. They're hints, not rules.
I _____ for you since 6 o'clock!
Other present tenses: Present Simple, Present Continuous, Present Perfect.
Paste an email or an essay. Clarigram marks the mistakes you actually make, shows the rule behind each one as a picture, and builds your practice from them.
Use the continuous for the activity and how long (I've been writing emails all morning) and the simple for the result or how many (I've written ten emails).
Yes. With live, work, study and teach, both are correct and mean almost the same. The continuous can make the situation sound more temporary.
State verbs, which describe states rather than actions: know, believe, understand, like, love, hate, want, need, prefer, own, belong, seem, mean. They normally stay simple even when you mean 'right now': I know, not I'm knowing.