There are 12 basic tenses in English. We have the present tenses, the past tenses,
and the future tenses. In today's lesson we are going to focus on the perfect continuous tenses.
Present perfect continuous, past perfect continuous, and future perfect continuous.
By focusing on the perfect continuous tenses, and only the perfect continuous
tenses, we can compare them and you can see how similar they are.
If you haven't watched my first videos in the series: Simple tenses, continuous tenses, perfect
tenses. I suggest you do that before continuing with this lesson. My name is Arnel, let's start.
Let's start with the grammatical structures and then we can look at how we use these tenses.
Present perfect continuous. Past perfect continuous. Future perfect continuous.
Present perfect continuous. Subject have or has been plus verb "ing".
Remember to choose have or has depending on your subject.
The pie has been baking. Negative, the pie has not been baking. Question, has the pie have been baking?
Past perfect continuous. Subject had been plus verb "ing". The good news is we use had been for all
subjects. The pie had been baking. Negative, the pie had not been baking. Had the pie been baking? Future
perfect continuous. Subject will have been plus verb "ing". We use will have been for all subjects.
The pie will have been baking. The pie will not have been baking. Will the pie have been baking?
In this lesson I will keep the grammatical structures highlighted for you.
Okay, so how do we use these tenses? I have my timelines and the examples we've just looked
at. The pie has been baking, the pie had been baking, the pie will have been baking.
The perfect continuous tenses emphasize an action that continues up to another point.
And the emphasis is on duration, how long. Wait, wait, wait. Duration? How long? Remember earlier in
the series you were explaining the present perfect and you said this: For 22 years. My entire life.
Since kindergarten. All of these tell us how long, and this is really common in the present perfect.
Okay, if how long is important in the present perfect, and the present perfect
continuous, what is the difference? I am confused! We need a grammar web [Music]
Arnel's Grammar Web! I created this web to help me make a decision.
Don't start with present perfect or present perfect continuous. No, use this web. First, is
your verb dynamic or stative? Let's choose a simple dynamic verb, eat. Eat is dynamic. Do I
want to emphasize a completed action? Or an ongoing action? Ongoing means still continuing.
Let's choose completed. If your action is completed and connected to the present, you need the
present perfect simple. The guests have eaten the main course. Completed. Now it's time for dessert.
Let's try with ongoing. And you can see if your action is ongoing, you need the present perfect
continuous. The guests have been eating and they are still eating. Duration, all evening. You can see
you need present evidence. What's the present evidence of this action? Well, you keep putting
food out for the guests and they keep eating! I mean you can literally see people chewing.
And duration isn't always necessary. Sometimes in a situation the duration is obvious.
Let's try another verb, be. Be is a stative verb. Can stative verbs be used in a continuous
tense? No, so this makes life easy. With stative verbs continuous tenses are not an option,
but you still need to choose between a completed and ongoing action.
Do I want to be completed or ongoing? Let's choose completed. If it's completed, it's a past experience.
I've had many jobs in my life. I have been a dog walker, a babysitter, a florist, and a nurse.
Am I any of these things now? No, completed. Now let's choose ongoing. I have been a nurse, duration, since
2015. What is my evidence of this ongoing state? Well I go to the hospital every day, it's my job.
So in this lesson keep my grammar web (Arnel's Grammar Web) in mind. The present perfect continuous.
The pie has been baking for 20 minutes and the kitchen smells wonderful. An action started in
the past, it continues up to the present, and it is ongoing. The pie is still in the oven. What's
my evidence here? Well, I can see the pie baking in the oven and the kitchen smells wonderful.
It has been raining non-stop, it's still raining! If I want I could add, for days,
or for weeks. But non-stop kind of already emphasizes the duration. What evidence do I
have? Well I can see it's raining and maybe outside there are large puddles everywhere.
Our solar panels have been providing us energy since we put them up, and this is ongoing, they
will continue to provide us energy. What's my evidence? Well, now we have electricity.
So far I've mentioned ongoing a few times. The actions are ongoing, they're continuing. However,
mini note, with the present perfect continuous the action could be ongoing or the action could
have stopped just before the present time. So if I say: Sorry I'm sweaty, I've been running.
Maybe I'm done running, but there's still evidence of that recently finished action. What's my
evidence? Well I'm all sweaty. We've looked at four examples of the present perfect continuous. What do
we need to do now? We need to compare this tense to the other tenses, are you ready? The present perfect
continuous. The pie has been baking the oven for 20 minutes and the kitchen smells wonderful. An action
started in the past and continues up to the present, and is ongoing. What's my evidence? The kitchen
smells wonderful. Present perfect. The pie has baked, cooled, and is now ready to cut. This is a completed
past action. The pie is out of the oven. When did this action happen? It doesn't matter, before now.
Past simple. The pie baked beautifully yesterday and everyone enjoyed it.
Completed past action. But now I include a specific time, yesterday.
And you can see I'm changing my example slightly to fit the tenses. Present continuous. The pie is
baking now, don't turn off the oven. I'm focusing on the action now. Remember, we do not use a present
continuous for a past to present connection. I want you to take a look at a mini clip
here. In this clip we see two strangers on a train. They don't know each other but we
will hear a nice combination of a few tenses. How about you where are you going? I'm going to Vienna.
Vienna, what's there? I have no idea, I'm flying out of there tomorrow. You're on holiday? Uhhhhhh
um I don't really know what I'm on, uh I'm just traveling around. I've been riding the
trains for the past two three weeks. You are visiting friends or just... Present continuous because this is happening now.
I have no idea, I'm flying out there tomorrow. This present continuous is a future plan.
It's definitely happening. He will already have his plane ticket. I'm just traveling around. Present
continuous because he's doing this now. I've been riding the trains for the past two/three weeks.
Yes! Now we see the present perfect continuous. Because this started in the past,
continues up to the present, and now he is still on the train. This is ongoing.
The verbs live and work are not stative verbs, they are dynamic verbs.
But where we live and where we work are kind of like states right? They don't change often.
We can use these two verbs live and work interchangeably with the present perfect
and the present perfect continuous, and there is no difference in meaning.
Some people may choose the present perfect continuous to really emphasize the
duration. But really you can comfortably use these, and don't worry about the difference.
Past perfect continuous. When I checked on the pie it had been baking for 20 minutes.
Just like the past perfect simple we need to use another past action. Why? Because the past
perfect continuous emphasizes a past action that continues up to another past point, and is ongoing.
Was the pie still baking when I checked on it? Yes. It's actually just like the present perfect
continuous, but we move it to the past. The river burst its banks as it had been pouring for days.
And if a river bursts its banks - that's really hard to say, burst its banks. It means that
um the river is so full the water starts to go on the land. You can see that past
perfect continuous action continued up to another past point, and was probably ongoing.
I want you to take a look at another mini clip. This is just a business meeting.
Our risk, where's Eric Dale? He was let go today. He was let go today, and let go means fired, Eric
Dale was fired. Past simple with a specific time. Obviously today means earlier today.
Apparently, Eric had been working on this for some time but he wasn't able to finish it. This morning
as he left... Apparently Eric had been working on this for some time, but he wasn't able to finish it.
So the past perfect continuous goes up to the moment Eric was fired.
Arnel's Grammar Web! Verb, work. Work is dynamic. Was it completed or ongoing? Well,
ongoing because he was still working on it when he got fired. Duration, for some time.
And evidence, records, talking to Eric etc...
Right, it's time to compare the past perfect continuous with other tenses.
When I checked on the pie it had been baking for 20 minutes.
Past perfect. By the time I took the pie out of the oven, its crust had turned golden brown.
With the past perfect I'm emphasizing a completed action before another past
action. I'm not really interested in the ongoing past action, at a certain point.
Past simple. The other day I was really in the mood to do some baking, so I baked a
pie. Past simple, specific time, the other day. And the other day means recently, in
the past, maybe two to three days ago. The past simple is not dependent on another past point.
Past continuous. The pie was baking in the oven
when we had a power cut. Am I emphasizing the duration like the past perfect continuous? No, the
past continuous is giving me the background, the background action that was interrupted by another
action. Okay, future perfect continuous. How are you feeling? When will the pie be ready?
Um, in 10 minutes the pie will have been baking for 20 minutes, and it will need another 15
minutes after that. Can you see how similar the future perfect continuous is to the other two
perfect continuous tenses? The news says it's going to rain for another three days. [Music]
Okay, so by Friday it will have been raining for eight days. Great.
How are your solar panels holding up? Holding up means, surviving. How are your solar panels
surviving? Great, next month they will have been providing us energy for exactly one year.
Remember with the future perfect continuous this ongoing action could have started in the past,
the present, or the future. It really depends on the situation.
I will say the future perfect continuous tense really is the least common tense in English.
It's not really heard in spoken English, but I did find some great examples in written English.
Here's an article from economist.com:
At the end of July America's economy will have been growing for 121 months.
There's expectation that this is ongoing.
and here's one from homeserve.com Smart Energy users will have been
Using their fans throughout the winter, too, as a way to encourage warm air distribution.
Let's try this again with this sentence. Grow, dynamic, ongoing.
Duration, 121 months. Evidence, well whoever wrote this article just needs to calculate
from the starting point to the end of July, and count how many months there are.
Your turn to practice. Here is your homework: What is something you have been doing recently and
that you will probably continue to do? I've been making a lot of banana mango smoothies... so good.
What is something you had been doing before the pandemic to improve your English?
By the end of this year what will you have been doing to improve your English?
Give me your comments down below, I would love to hear from you.
Perfect continuous review. The perfect continuous actions continue up to another point.
Present perfect continuous, up to now. I have been practicing this song for days.
The past perfect continuous, an action continues up to another past point. By the time I perform the
song, I had been practicing for months. Future perfect continuous, the action continues up
to another future point. By the time I performed the song, I will have been practicing for months.
Usually these actions are ongoing or they end very close to the other point. And the perfect
continuous tenses emphasize duration. You can see in my examples four plus the period. Okay, perfect
continuous tenses done. I really hope this lesson helped you and if you want to test, look out for
my next video: All 12 English Tenses. Take the test in that lesson to see how comfortable
you are with the tenses. Thank you so much for watching and I'll see you next time. Bye!!! [Music]