awesome hi everybody welcome back to our
weekly live stream my name is alicia and
this week we are going to talk about
using the present perfect continuous
present perfect continuous many of you
have asked questions about this grammar
point especially the difference between
present perfect continuous and just
present perfect so today we are going to
focus on this grammar point and i'm
going to explain when we use it why we
use it and a couple of uh ways that you
can use it to make questions too so as
you join live please make sure to like
and share the video also send us a
comment in the chat so that we can see
you i see some of you on youtube hello
rendell saleh jubilees manfred roberto
hi everybody thanks very much for coming
i think facebook is on the way right now
oh i see one person muhammad hello hi
there great uh so today's topic will be
kind of grammar heavy i'm going to focus
on grammar also as always please don't
forget to check out the free stuff we
have for you
you can find free vocabulary and phrase
pdfs from the link below the video on
youtube or above the video on facebook i
will introduce those a little bit later
okay i see more people on facebook now
hi there sophia and sam and
young hi fida and mirtha and all kinds
of people great okay
i see lots on youtube as well too uh
julio and sergio and mary great lots of
people there as well fantastic so we're
going to wait another minute or so for
other people to join the lesson while we
wait uh i want to as always share one
more quick a kind of announcement or
reminder
and that is this week i wanted to remind
you about the weekly series we have on
our youtube channel called ask alicia
this is a chance for you to send
questions uh like those little questions
that you have that maybe you find as
you're reading things or as you're
watching tv and so on it's a chance for
you to send those questions
to me i read them all and then i choose
a few questions that i think are helpful
for everyone and we talk a little bit
about those so uh this is one this is a
screenshot from an episode a recent
episode about symbols i talked about
symbols that we use uh like um
for like social media and just in
general when we're writing online so if
you're interested you can find the ask
alicia series on the youtube channel and
you can send your questions from the
link below the video
on the youtube channel too so definitely
send some questions there we get a lot
so please notice that i can't answer
everything uh and also uh you might want
to check uh the other videos on the
channel as well to see if there's an
answer already available to your
question so please check that out that
would be awesome okay i think let's see
we're about three minutes in so i'm
going to share the video and then i'm
going to get started on today's lesson
as i said today's topic is the present
perfect continuous tense and we're going
to be very grammar heavy today so i'm
going to
break this into three parts and i'm
going to speak a bit slowly because this
is for some people a challenging grammar
point i'm going to talk first about how
to make a present perfect continuous
statement
and then why we make it why we use it
and the difference between this and
present perfect tense and then second
i'm going to talk about using it with
for and since and we'll talk a little
bit about the negative
finally i'll talk a bit about questions
with this grammar so let's get started
let's begin over here with how to make
the present perfect continuous and why
we need it first how to make it we begin
a present perfect statement with the
subject the subject of our sentence so
for example i
you
we he she
we follow our subject with have
or has so if your subject is i
or you
or we we use have i have you have
we have
if your subject is he or she or it we
use has so i had or sorry she has he has
it has
so depending on your subject
you'll need to change this part here
after this
we'll use bin
bin
we follow this with a verb in the ing
form so you might hear this form called
progressive form you might hear it
called continuous ing verb that's how
i've marked it for this lesson
when we want to make a negative sentence
we change this part right here so
subject plus
haven't
if your subject is i or you or we i
haven't we haven't they haven't as well
if your subject is he she or it we use
hasn't
hasn't to make a negative statement so
some examples of this first
i haven't
been sleeping well lately i haven't been
sleeping well lately so here my subject
is i
i'm using haven't
here a negative
and i'm using bin
followed by
the ing form of a verb in this case i'm
using lately to mean
in the recent time period i haven't been
sleeping well lately
keep in mind this haven't and this
hasn't as well these are the reduced
forms of have not and has not it sounds
much more natural to use have not i'm
sorry hasn't and haven't and have not
and has not
at native speed this sentence sounds
like i haven't been sleeping well lately
i haven't been sleeping well lately
this sentence then uses a different
subject this sentence focuses on she as
the subject here
she's you'll notice this she's
i'll come back to this she's been
coming
to work late recently
so again my subject she
here is this apostrophe s
in cases where your subject is he or she
or it
it's very common to use this apostrophe
s in spelling i'm sorry in writing
to mean
has
has so this does not mean is we know
that because
the apostrophe s is followed by bin
and this is a very like this is a set
pattern for this grammar point so we
know it is not she is because in a she
is pattern we follow is with an
adjective
or maybe with a noun phrase so here
we're following it with bin so we know
this apostrophe s is has not is so she's
been coming to work late recently so
again here i've used recently recently
and lately these both mean like in the
last few days or
maybe in the last week or the last month
or so
in the recent time period
so what do these sentences mean how are
they different why should we use this
continuous form here
to explain i want to look at this
kind of diagram here
i use this sort of um
timeline a lot i think but to to look at
the key points on this timeline let's
imagine this star here is now this is
the conversation right now so when i say
this sentence i haven't been sleeping
well lately or she's been coming to work
late recently
this
progressive form this present
progressive form is used to mean
something started in the past so if we
imagine this dot
is the point where the action started so
at this part of the timeline it's hard
to see a little at this part of the
timeline this is the past this happened
before
this part of the timeline is into the
future so next week tomorrow
when we use this grammar point
we're talking about an action that
started sometime in the past
and the action continues
until the present
i've got an arrow here too
because it suggests that perhaps the
action is going to continue after the
conversation as well so i haven't been
sleeping well lately that means in this
recent time before the conversation this
has been my condition i haven't been
sleeping well lately
[Music]
let's compare this then to
it's really hard to see sorry maybe you
can see it a little better than i can on
my monitor i don't know um this dotted
line here i've made a dotted line here
and put a question mark inside the
dotted line thank you
uh
this part i want to use this to show
just regular present perfect tense so we
use regular present perfect tense one
use
is to talk about a general life
experience
before the present like sometime in the
past but we don't know the specific
point in time or it's not important it's
just not important so we use this for
like travel i have been to france for
example
so we use this to talk about things that
really we don't need to know exactly
when the action happened or it's not
important to know
we use this to talk very often as we'll
see in a moment
about something that started very
recently or started at a specific point
in time and continued until the present
so if you want to emphasize a continuing
action
it's probably a good idea to use the
present perfect continuous to do that
if you just want to talk about a life
experience in the past you can use
present perfect tense simple present
perfect tense so i know there's one
really common question that i see a lot
and i think i'm sure i haven't checked
the chat but i'm sure someone has asked
this question
like what about a situation where you
can say something like uh
this
this is a really common question like
i've lived oops sorry i've lived in this
city
for six years
i've lived in this city for six years
this
is a simple present perfect tense
sentence i've lived in this city i have
lived
what's the difference between uh this
sentence and i've been
living
in this city for six years what's the
difference here the answer is there's no
difference in this case in this case
there's no difference so you'll notice
liv
this particular verb this is one that
like the the condition doesn't really
change a lot for most people so i've
lived in this city for six years and
i've been living in this city for six
years they mean the same thing this is a
case where you can choose either it's
fine another one that you can use
usually you can use either is with the
verb work like i've worked in this
company for six years or i've been
working in this company for six years
both are fine so you'll notice those
verbs those are things that don't really
change so much
if you compare this to a verb like for
example
walk
like i've walked
around my neighborhood before that's a
general life experience statement so
walking is something we do a lot
if you say like i've been walking around
the neighborhood for an hour that refers
to a continuing action so think about
this
or you want is your goal to express a
continuing action something that started
in the past and continues to the present
if so present perfect continuous might
be a good choice if you just want to
talk about general life experience use
just the basic present perfect here okay
so that's our introduction a long
introduction to today's grammar i want
to check a couple
comments uh sorry i wasn't paying
attention to the comments for that first
part some examples
um
let's is the present does the present
perfect continuous always use bin yes
yes uh bame on youtube so we need to use
this bin uh i have been she has been
something something
so not i have coming or i have going or
something i have been plus the ing form
uh other examples other examples
i haven't been to new york okay so
that's a present perfect example let's
think of some examples we can use for
present perfect continuous so
uh think about this think about i'll put
a question on the board and then we'll
go to this next part where you can
practice using for instance so think
about this question a little bit
so send in the comments even if you're
not watching this live that's okay
so send a comment with
this question if you can if you can
what have you
been doing
recently
what have you been doing recently sorry
it's hard to read one more time what
have you been doing recently what have
you been doing recently so if you can
send a send your answer in the comments
i will check it if you don't understand
this question that's okay i'm going to
talk about it later so i'll take one
quick break think about this question
and then send your examples and we'll
talk about it
okay
uh
i'm going to take a break i mentioned
earlier as always we have free stuff for
you from the link below the video on
youtube or above the video if you are
watching on facebook so present perfect
continuous because it is a grammar point
uh it's not specific to like a specific
you know
group of vocabulary words we need to use
this grammar point with verbs so uh you
can pick and choose whichever kinds of
verbs you need to use a lot so maybe if
you travel a lot i'll just show quickly
oh i'll show quickly uh a couple of
these if you're a person who travels a
lot you might check out the ah thank you
the airport pdf on the back
there are some vocabulary words and here
it's hard to see i know but here on the
back there's a q and a at the airport
and this one
you might use
the
present perfect continuous to answer
questions at the airport like i've been
traveling for a week or something like
that so this is one example of a
situation where you might use the
present perfect continuous tense so
please keep in mind different from just
regular present perfect this is one
another time when you may use present
perfect continuous this is the business
pdf the business one on mac
when you need to give a project report
here at the top there are some phrases
that you can use it's not so hard to see
sorry there's some phrases you can use
for business meetings but you'll use
present perfect continuous to talk about
things you have been working on
until the meeting so this is another
case where you will probably use this
grammar point so please check that out
i'll show a few more a little bit later
oh hey good so if you're just joining
live today's topic is present perfect
continuous i talked about how to make it
and why we use this at the beginning of
the lesson if you missed it please watch
the recording of this lesson
okay let's go to part two part two is a
little shorter uh so let's take a look
at
this part part two focuses on using for
and since for and since so my example
sentences in the first part of the
lesson focused on using lately and
recently so lately and recently mean
like the time just before now so like
the last few days or the last week so
something that happened like very close
to the present
when we use for and since we're using
them
to express
the specific point in time
something started or
the time period
the action has continued so for example
when we make a sentence with four
we attach it to the end of this pattern
so we use the same pattern subject have
or has
been
in verb
for
time period so time period keep in mind
a time period is like three days two
weeks four months so not just one day
but a length of time so for a time
period
when we use since
again the same pattern can be used and
we attach since to the end here
but when we use since we need to use a
point in time a point in time so
specifically this point right here
so since 2019 or since last tuesday or
since 8 o'clock this morning so a
specific point in time
that's what we use
since with
so i want to make one more point about
this i want to
talk about something that's a little bit
challenging maybe and that is using this
with the negative so at the beginning of
this lesson
i talked about using haven't and hasn't
to make negatives and we talked about
one example here but when we use like
for and since
it can be a little bit confusing so
let's look at an example first let's
take a look at this example
let's imagine a conversation question
and answer so let's imagine your friend
asks you have you been waiting
for a long time have you been waiting
for a long time so you go to meet your
friend at the movie theater and your
friend says have you been waiting for a
long time
and you say
no
i haven't been waiting for a long time
so this sentence actually
even though it begins with no this
sentence means
the speaker
has been waiting so if this is me if i
am answering the question i'm waiting or
i was waiting for that person but this
no
means i wasn't waiting or i haven't been
waiting
for a long time
so have you been waiting no i haven't
been waiting for a long time
this kind of negative answer this is
used
for confirmations
so you're confirming something sorry
confirmations that's a little bit messy
confirmation so confirmation means
checking to check something so another
example would be like if you see your
co-worker has been working really really
hard and you say have you been working
for 24 hours
again you're checking with your
co-worker and your co-worker says no
i haven't been working for 24 hours i
took a break
so again they have been working yes but
they want to fix your original statement
or they want to make a change to the
thing you said before so this is a
tricky a difficult part maybe of using
this in the negative so please keep this
in mind
but
let's go back to this question what have
you been doing recently and maybe some
of you have used for or since to talk
about this so let's practice then making
a couple of expressions with recently is
okay or with for or since
so did anybody write anything in the
comments about for use the uh question
that i asked i've been waiting for your
lecture every day nice good one that was
from sam on facebook nice one nice one
uh
let's see ah sofia on youtube says i've
been watching the nba game since this
morning very nice very nice example with
since so sophia used since this morning
perfect so this morning is a point in
time
perfect perfect uh reuben said i have
been working since
2014. good kelvin said i have been
talking to my bestie all day long ah
bestie means best friend very nice
oh someone a moody on youtube says you
mean can you scroll back down sorry
thank you you mean we can use present
perfect continuous with a time and
present perfect without yes that is true
so in present perfect you don't have to
in many cases we do not include the time
we leave it out it's not important with
present perfect continuous we include
the time period or the specific point in
time that is correct
uh the questions i've been following
your classes very nice nice answer to
this question good job
uh someone says i'm not gonna read that
comment uh someone says i have been
following you since
2017. good good following you or
following your lessons would be a nice
one good is there a form of passive
present perfect continuous
uh can you give me an example passive
i'm not sure
uh
other ones i've been watching superhero
movies recently very nice scare song
hello haven't seen you for a while
someone says i'm writing like a doctor
yes i'm writing very quickly i apologize
but i try to read everything clearly so
i hope that helps someone says i've been
singing since 2001. very nice
on facebook i've been waiting for you
for a long time i've been waiting for
you for a long time okay great nice
examples everybody let's finish up then
i'll take one more break
and then i'm going to talk a little bit
about making questions with this grammar
so if you missed it earlier i showed
some examples where we might use present
perfect continuous my examples were in
business situations where you explain
your recent work your recent progress
and another example is when you are
traveling at the airport so these are a
couple situations where you may need to
use present perfect continuous so you
can get these from the link below the
video on youtube or above the video on
facebook some other situations
are when you're talking about eating too
for example i haven't been eating meat
recently if you're a vegetarian or a
vegan i haven't been eating meat
recently there are some food vocabulary
words on the back of this
dining so it says dining this is for
like restaurants going to restaurants
and so on so this is another case where
you may use present perfect continuous
as well and
for talking this says romance and love
yes but you can talk about relationships
in general just your your friendships
even using this like i've been seeing my
friends once a week lately and so on so
there are lots of different situations
where you may want to use present
perfect continuous so check out any of
those pdfs you can find them for free
from the link below the video on youtube
or above the video on facebook if you're
watching on instagram please check
youtube or facebook sorry i cannot see
your comments live okay let's go on to
the last part of today's lesson of
course if you're just joining please
don't forget to like and share the video
so that other people can find it
okay
let's take a look at making questions
making questions so i have two types of
question here
this first type of question is an
information question you want to get
more information from someone this
begins with question word
and when i say question word i mean who
what
where when why how how long and so on
this is the first type of question i'll
talk about
the second type of question pattern i'll
talk about is this yes or no
question pat
so we'll talk about two
let's begin with this information
question type so to make a an
information question we use question
word to begin plus have or has or in the
negative haven't or hasn't
and then we use our subject
plus bin
plus our ing verb
so i asked you
earlier in the lesson what have you been
doing lately what have you been doing
lately this is a very common question
when you meet a friend or maybe you meet
a former colleague that you have not
seen for a long time at native speed
this question sounds like what have you
been doing lately what have you been
doing lately so this question means
from harpsinap from like the
recent past so lately
so from the recent past until this
conversation what were your activities
what have you been doing lately what
have you been doing recently
so this is a very good question
to know of course to ask so please try
to use this question and also think
about how to answer this question using
today's grammar point so some of you
wrote your answers in the chat earlier
that was awesome what have you been
doing lately i think someone said i've
been watching superhero movies lately or
i've been watching your lessons so i've
been
ing form i've been i've been so this is
a great question to know
of course we can use other question
words here
so this one what have you been doing
lately or like how long have you been
studying english that's another very
good one for you to know so you can
change your question word and change the
type of information you hope to get
okay i'm running out of time so let's go
to the last point here
have and has begins a yes or no question
have or has
plus your subject plus bin
plus an ing verb again so this type of
question this is good to use as i said
a little bit earlier this is good to use
for confirming things
confirming things so again confirming
means checking something so here this
example like i'm shocked about something
in this example have you been following
me have you been following me or have
the police been watching your house so
it's like you want to ask a shocking
question about a recent activity that
started in the past and continues
to the conversation have you been
following me
so notice have
and then my subject you so these two
match yeah not has you but have you
been same as here
following in this case is my verb
following me have you been following me
if i change the subject has he been
following me has she been following me
so please remember that this part your
have and has needs to match your subject
just as we talked about at the beginning
of the lesson reuben says have you been
scolding me okay maybe maybe there's a
situation uh where we can use that uh
someone on facebook says i have been
learning from a teacher on facebook very
nice example very nice example okay so
this is how we can make uh information
questions and yes no questions with this
grammar point so this is a challenging
grammar point but i hope that this
lesson is helpful for you of course if
you have questions about this please
send them in the comments or as i talked
about at the beginning of the lesson
send it to the ask alicia question
portal uh hello maravik hello there one
of our members has joined our chat hi
uh so as i said i have to finish today's
lesson there thank you to everyone who
joined if you missed it this video has
been recorded so please watch it on
facebook or on youtube at any time we
will be back next week of course next
week um will be
june 12th my gosh it's going so fast
every week i think that but next week
wednesday june 12th 10 p.m eastern
standard time our topic will be how to
speak to a doctor how to speak to a
doctor so i've gotten a few requests for
like expressing uh like your
sickness ex talking about sickness or
when you don't feel very good so i'm
going to focus on speaking to a doctor
good for people who travel i think and
for people maybe who are doing
like study abroad students i think so
this is a good one to know for emergency
situations as well so please join us
next week june 12th how to speak to a
doctor every every wednesday of course
at 10 pm eastern standard time that is
new york city time uh if you don't know
your local time please google it
uh that's everything from me i think
please don't forget to check out your
free stuff from the link below the video
on youtube above the video on facebook i
showed you a bunch of these earlier but
please do practice present perfect
continuous and think about the
differences between this point and
present perfect tense as i talked about
earlier so thank you very much to
everybody for joining this week's live
lesson thank you for all of your example
sentences and thank you for liking and
sharing the video too enjoy the rest of
your week have a nice weekend and i will
see you again next time bye