Present perfect continuous

Follow-up on the present perfect

Present perfect continuous: have/has been –ing

I/we/they/you have (= I’ve etc.)	been	going waiting playing etc.
He/she/it has (= he’s etc.)

You use the present perfect continuous for an activity that has recently stopped or just stopped. There’s a connection with now:

“I’ve been talking to Alex about the problem and he agrees with me.”

“Where have you been? I’ve been looking for you everywhere.”

You also use it when talking about an activity that started in the past and is still going on:

“How long has it been raining?”                 “It has been raining for two hours.” (= it’s still raining.)

Dani and Mia are watching TV. They’ve been watching TV all day.

The present perfect continuous is used in this way with how long, for… and since… The activity is still happening or has just stopped.

Ever Saturday my family goes to the same café. They’ve been going there for years.

Raoul is a very good trombone player. He’s been playing since he was sixteen.

Now you might think: “Wait a minute! This sounds a lot like the present continuous.” Well, there are of course some similarities, but there’s one key difference. By using the present continuous, you focus on the now. The activity might have been going on for a while but the emphasis lies on the fact that it is happening at the very moment you’re speaking:

“We need an umbrella. It’s raining.” (= it might have been raining for a while but the important point is that it’s raining now)

“Hurry up! We’re waiting.”

 By using the present perfect continuous, you put the emphasis on the fact that, although an activity might still be taking place (or not), it has been going on for a while:

The ground is wet. It has been raining.

We have been waiting for an hour.

And finally, some verbs (for example, know, like and believe) are not normally used in the continuous:

I’ve known about the problem for a long time. (not I have been knowing)

How long have you had that job? (not have you been having)

But you can use want and mean in the present perfect continuous:

I’ve been meaning to phone Dani, but I keep forgetting.

This might all sound complicated, but in practice it’s actually pretty intuitive so you’ll get the hang of it really quickly, guaranteed!