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  • Hi, everyone.

  • Welcome to the video.

  • In this video, I'll introduce the Present Perfect Continuous English Tense.

  • This tense can be used to talk about an action

  • that started in the past and continues in the present.

  • It can also be used to talk about an action that hasn't happened recently.

  • And finally, it can also be used to talk about an action that recently stopped.

  • There's a lot to learn, so keep watching.

  • You can use the present perfect continuous tense

  • to talk about an action that started in the past and continues in the present.

  • We want to emphasize duration

  • and you can do that by using 'for' or 'since' in your sentence.

  • Let's take a look at some examples.

  • 'Charles has been studying English for an hour.'

  • Take a look at the subject, 'Charles'.

  • The subject pronoun for Charles is 'he'.

  • And that's why we say 'has'.

  • After that, we add 'been' and then verb '-ing'.

  • In this case, 'studying.'

  • You'll also notice that at the end of the sentence we have for an hour.

  • That shows how long this action has been happening.

  • When you use 'for', you emphasize the duration. 'for an hour'.

  • 'Charles has been studying English for an hour.'

  • Let's take a look at the next sentence.

  • 'Lily has been playing the piano for 2 years.'

  • In this case, Lily is a 'she' and that's why, again, we say 'has'.

  • You'll notice again, we have 'been' and then verb '-ing'.

  • In this case, 'playing'.

  • At the end of this sentence, we also used 'for'.

  • and then 'two years'.

  • So again, we're showing how long this has been happening.

  • The next sentence is a little different.

  • 'It has been growing since June.'

  • So it can be something like a plant.

  • The plant or it has been growing since June.

  • Here we use 'since', not 'for'.

  • What's the difference?

  • We use a specific point in time with since.

  • We don't say 'Since two hours'.

  • No, we say 'When the action started since June.'

  • And finally, 'Dan and I have been working since 6 a.m.'

  • The subject pronoun for 'Dan and I' is 'We'.

  • Therefore we use 'have'.

  • At the end of the sentence, we have 'since 6 a.m.'

  • Remember that with 'since', we talked about a specific point in time when the action started.

  • Let's move on.

  • The present perfect continuous can also be used without emphasizing duration.

  • In this case, we mean 'lately'.

  • This action has been happening 'lately',

  • and so we can use the word 'lately' or 'recently' to explain this.

  • Let's take a look at some examples.

  • 'You have been missing many classes lately.'

  • You'll notice that at the end of the sentence I use the word 'lately'

  • to describe when this action has been happening.

  • You can also use lately at the beginning of the sentence.

  • For example, 'Lately, you have been missing many classes.'

  • The next example says, 'Recently, Toby has been running every day.'

  • In this sentence, we used 'recently' at the beginning

  • to show when does action has been happening.

  • You can also use 'recently' at the end of the sentence.

  • 'Toby has been running everyday recently.'

  • In this example, the subject is Toby and so we use 'has' after Toby.

  • Because Toby is a 'he'.

  • The next example says, 'Lately, Dana has been swimming a lot.'

  • Again, we use 'lately' at the beginning of this sentence,

  • but you can also use it at the end.

  • Dana is a 'she' and so we followed this subject with 'has'.

  • And finally, 'We've been practicing English together recently.'

  • 'We' is the subject of this sentence and so we use 'have'.

  • Here, we use the contraction 'We've'.

  • 'We have' become 'We've'.

  • 'We've been practicing English together recently.'

  • We can put 'recently' at the end,

  • or we can say 'Recently we've been practicing English together.'

  • Let's move on.

  • The present perfect continuous tense and also be used to talk about an action that recently

  • stopped and has a present result.

  • Let's take a look at the example.

  • 'I'm tired because I have been running.'

  • The second part of the sentence, 'I have been running'

  • is using the present perfect continuous tense.

  • This is the action that recently stopped.

  • And as a result, 'I'm tired'.

  • This is the present result.

  • What's happening now, because of this.

  • 'I'm tired.'.

  • The next example says, 'The street is wet because it has been raining.'

  • This is very similar to the first sentence.

  • Here, we know that it has been raining.

  • And this action recently stopped.

  • As a result, in the present, The street is wet.

  • The street is wet right now because of this action.

  • The next example says, 'You don't understand because you haven't been listening.'

  • You'll notice here that we use the negative.

  • Here's the contractions, 'haven't' or 'have not'

  • because of this action, you haven't been listening,

  • now you don't understand.

  • In the last example, we switch the order a little bit.

  • 'I've been studying all night.'

  • There is the present perfect continuous tense.

  • This is the action that stopped recently.

  • And here is the result.

  • 'Now, I'm exhausted.'

  • Great job, everyone.

  • Let's move on.

  • Let's take a look at the negative form of the present perfect continuous tense.

  • Here are some examples.

  • 'I have not been feeling well these days.'

  • At the end of the sentence we have 'these days' to show that this is an action that's

  • been happening recently.

  • In the negative form, we have to have 'not'.

  • The 'not' goes after have or has.

  • In this case, the subject is 'I', so I use 'have'.

  • 'I have not been feeling well these days.'

  • We can also use a contraction 'haven't' or 'have not'.

  • 'I haven't been feeling well these days.'

  • The next sentence says, 'Sue has not been cooking lately.'

  • We have 'lately' at the end of this sentence,

  • We can also put 'lately' at the beginning of the sentence.

  • The important part of this sentence is to put 'not' after 'has'.

  • Why did we use 'has'?

  • Because the subject is 'Sue' which is a 'she'.

  • For 'he', 'she', 'it', we use 'has'.

  • Again, we can use a contraction 'hasn't' for has not.

  • 'Sue hasn't been cooking lately.'

  • The next sentence says, 'Jeff hasn't been eating healthy food recently.'

  • Again, the 'recently' can be used at the beginning or end of this sentence.

  • We have the contestant 'hasn't' here for you.

  • 'hasn't' is a contraction for 'has not'.

  • We have 'has' because the subject is Jeff which is 'he'.

  • And finally, 'They haven't been speaking for over a year.'

  • In this case, 'for over a year' shows duration.

  • Remember with 'for', you show how long something has been happening.

  • In this case, we have a contraction 'haven't' or 'have not'.

  • Great job, everybody.

  • let's move on.

  • Now, let's take a look at how to form the 'have' or 'has' question

  • for the present perfect continuous tense.

  • The first sentence says, 'He has been reading for an hour,'

  • Now, to turn this into a question,

  • all we have to do is change the order of the first two words.

  • So 'He has' becomes 'Has he'.

  • 'Has he been reading for an hour?'

  • You'll notice that the second part of the sentence doesn't change.

  • 'Has he been reading for an hour?'

  • To answer, you can simply say, 'Yes, he has.' or 'No, he hasn't.'

  • The next sentence says, 'They have been sleeping since 8 p.m.'

  • Again, the second part of the sentence stays the same,

  • and in the beginning, we just switch the first two words.

  • 'They have' become 'Have they'.

  • 'Have they been sleeping since 8 p.m.?'

  • To answer, you can say, 'Yes, they have.'

  • or 'No. they haven't.'

  • Great job, everybody.

  • Let's move on.

  • Now, let's take a look at how to form WH questions in the present perfect continuous tense.

  • Here, we have some WH question words.

  • 'what', 'where', 'why' and 'how'.

  • Let's take a look at the first question.

  • 'What have you been doing lately?'

  • I can answer by saying, 'I have been working.'

  • or 'I have been studying.'

  • I can also use the contraction 'I've'.

  • 'I've been working.'

  • 'I've been studying.'

  • The next question says, 'Where have you been traveling?'

  • 'I have been traveling in Europe.'

  • or 'I've been traveling in Europe.'

  • 'Why has he been feeling sad?'

  • You can answer by saying, 'He's been feeling sad.'

  • That's the contraction 'he has', he's been feeling sad because his pet died.

  • or 'He has been feeling sad because he broke up with his girlfriend.'

  • Something like that.

  • And 'How has she been doing?'

  • 'How has she been doing?'

  • I can say, 'She's been doing well.'

  • 'She's' is a contraction for 'she has'.

  • Great job, everyone.

  • let's move on.

  • We got some really good practice in today with a present perfect continuous English tense.

  • I know there was a lot to learn, but you did a wonderful job.

  • Studying English can be difficult,

  • but with practice, I promise you'll get better and better.

  • Keep watching my other videos and I'll see you in the next one.

  • Bye.

Hi, everyone.

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