Present Perfect Continuous

Present Perfect Continuous

The present perfect continuous, often has the equivalence of the translation "out + gerund" in Spanish, but the use of this form is more common in English. Is used for actions that you have started in the past but continue into the present.

Grammatical Rules (Reglas gramaticales)

Form (Forma)

As in the present perfect, we use the auxiliary verb "to have" plus "been" (the past participle of the verb "to be") and the present participle of the verb.

Subject	Auxiliaries	Gerund
I, You, We, They	have been	talking, studying, waiting...
He, She, It	has been	talking, studying, waiting...

Structure (Estructura)

Affirmative Sentences (Frases afirmativas)

STRUCTURE

Subject + auxiliary verb ("to have") + "not" + "been" + gerund.

Examples:

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  They haven't been talking for more than a few minutes. (No han estado hablando más de unos minutos.)
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  She hasn't been studying English for very long. (No ha estado estudiando inglés durante mucho tiempo.)
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  Don't worry, I haven't been waiting long. (No te preocupes, no llevo esperando mucho tiempo.)

Interrogative Sentences (Frases interrogativas)

structure

Verbo auxiliar ("to have") + sujeto + "been" + gerundio?

Examples:

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  Have they been talking for a long time? (¿Han estado hablando durante mucho tiempo?)
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  Has Mary been waiting long? (¿Lleva Mary esperando mucho tiempo?)

Use (Uso)

We use this time when we would express the sense of the continuity of an action that started in the past and it is still going to this or that just ended. 

We mean something we have been doing over a period of time, therefore, we use prepositions of time "for" and "since". 

If we use the present perfect continuous without a period of time, means "lately" or "recently."

Examples:

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  I can't believe it is still raining. It's been raining for a week now! (No puedo creer que todavía esté lloviendo. Lleva lloviendo desde hace una semana!)
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  John has been working at the bank since 2003. (John lleva trabajando en el banco desde 2003.)
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  We've been planning our vacation for over a month. (Llevamos planeando nuestras vacaciones desde hace más de un mes.)
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  Amanda and Tom have been dating since last June. (Amanda y Tom han estado saliendo desde el junio pasado.)
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  He hasn't been studying enough. (No ha estado estudiando bastante.)
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  Have you been feeling ok lately? (¿Te has sentido bien últimamente?)
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  I've been working too much. (He estado trabajando demasiado.)