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hi everybody my name is alicia in this
lesson i'm going to talk about the
difference between the present perfect
tense and the present perfect continuous
tense many people ask about the
difference between these two so i'm
going to talk about how to make these
tenses and some times when you might
want to use them so let's get started
first of all i want to begin with sort
of a visual of these two grammar points
i'm going to start with the present
perfect tense here though so you might
have seen another video on this channel
about the present perfect tense
how to use it how to make it but i'm
going to review quickly here the present
perfect tense um i'm going to talk about
two uses of the present perfect tense
they are first uh that we use the
present perfect tense to express life
experience
at a non-specific time in the past so
this means something that we did
in the past
meaning before the present time here on
a timeline
but the exact point in time is not
important so we use this for perhaps our
job experience or our travel experience
for example with expressions like i have
been to france or i have worked at xyz
company for example the specific time is
not important so we can use the present
perfect tense to describe those things
the second point i want to talk about
with the present perfect tense is how we
use it to refer to an action that
started in the past and that continues
to the present or the effects of that
action started in the past and continue
to the present rather so on our timeline
it sort of looks a little bit like this
some action started in the past and the
action has continued uh to the present
in other words so these are the two
points i want to talk about with the
present perfect tense
let's take a look then to review how to
make the present perfect tense when
you're making a statement with the
present perfect tense you might use a
pattern like this so if your subject is
i we you or they we'll use that plus
have plus the past participle form of a
verb
you might use for or since depending on
the
the point that you're using here and
you'll finish the sentence with the
extra information
if your subject however is he or she or
it will use has instead of have and then
follow it with the past participle form
of the verb
perhaps for or since depending on your
sentence and your information so some
examples of this are i have
been to italy so have follows this
pattern and bin is the past participle
form of the verb be i have been to italy
in this one he has studied english for
six months so here i'm using point one
here i'm using point two in this uh in
this bullet pointed list so this is a
general life experience i have been to
italy
second this is an action that started in
the past and that continues to the
present he has studied english for six
months so this is an action that's
probably
still in progress okay
let's look at then some questions i want
to review how to make questions with
this tense so for simple yes and no
questions
we can use patterns like this
has if your subject is he or she or it
will begin with has if your subject is i
we you or they will begin with have so
let's start with this has he she or it
plus the past participle form of the
verb plus again this four or since
perhaps and then your extra information
at the end of the sentence
with have it's the same so have i we you
or they plus past participle verb and
maybe for or since so a couple examples
of this
has she finished her homework so here
has and my subject is she has she
finished as the past participle form of
the verb finish has she finished her
homework and
have they cleaned up the house so these
are questions asking
has this action been completed so before
now in other words these two actions in
this case uh her homework and the house
cleaning are they finished yes or no but
the time
at which the action was finished is not
so important in these questions the
speaker the person asking the question
only wants to know is it finished is it
not finished that's it so the specific
time is not important that's why the
present perfect tense is being used to
ask the question
let's look at a different question
pattern this is when you want to get
information you're using a question word
like who which uh what how and so on so
we begin with our question word and then
we follow the same pattern we saw up
here so for example
uh we could use question word plus has
he and past participle verb form
plus for or since perhaps and our extra
information or question word plus have
and are i we you they past participle
verb and for or since
so one great example of this is where
have you been where have you been so
again the speaker is asking
in the in the period of time before the
present where was the listener where
have you been in this period of time so
this is a very common question
so we use these these types of questions
just to ask about things that happened
or maybe that continued to happen before
the present but maybe not at a specific
point in time also please keep in mind
we use for and since commonly with this
point right here the continuing action
point remember we use 4 before a length
of time like for three years for five
hours and we use since to refer to a
specific point in time okay so with that
in mind let's take a look then at the
present perfect continuous tense
so present perfect continuous tense we
use this for actions that started in the
past and continue to the present yes so
just like this one that we talked about
here
but this point it emphasizes a
continuing action so we use this for
something that we're putting our effort
into now we're putting our focus into
right now or for an interrupted action
for example so we'll introduce some
examples here in just a moment
to make
the present perfect continuous
the pattern is quite similar to the
present perfect tense we have this same
change with the subject depending on the
subject we'll use i we you they plus
have
then we'll use bin
but then we'll follow it instead of with
the past participle form of the verb
we'll use the progressive or the content
continuous form of the verb the ing form
of the verb and here we can use for or
since and the ending information
same thing with he she and its subjects
the only difference is we'll use has
instead of have here and then we'll
follow it with bin progressive form of
the verb and for or since depending on
your statement so
let's take a look a couple examples here
i've been teaching this lesson for five
minutes maybe so here i'm saying
uh this lesson
is in progress this lesson is continuing
and i'm using four to show the length of
time i'm making a guess there but that's
roughly or that's about how long this
lesson has been continuing for i imagine
so i use the progressive in the
past perfect tense to show that so it's
an action that started in the past
and it continues to now and right now
it's the focus of my attention right now
i'm focusing everything on teaching this
lesson so i want to emphasize that
therefore i use the progressive tense
here in the past perfect let's look at
another one
he's been studying all morning he's been
studying all morning this sentence
sounds like the he in the sentence
is maybe still studying so this is
something he's put his effort into and
his focus into all morning long so when
we want to really emphasize someone's
focus or someone's effort we can use the
present perfect continuous tense also
you might notice i've used this
expression all morning at the end of
this sentence when you're using the
progressive or the continuous version of
the past perfect you can end your
sentence with like all morning or all
night all afternoon lately or recently
to talk about the period of time
that you've been focusing or the period
of time that you want to emphasize that
action was continuing we'll see another
example later
okay let's look at those some questions
using the present perfect continuous so
just as we saw with the present perfect
tense
we'll begin with have or has for some
simple yes or no questions
and then depending on the subject
will change
this this initial this initial word have
or has
and then we'll again we'll use bin plus
the progressive form of the verb and
perhaps for or since before our
concluding information so some examples
first has he been sleeping all day so
here i've used has because my subject is
he
i've used bin and the progressive form
of
sleeping so sleep becomes sleeping has
he been sleeping all day meaning in this
period of time
has he been sleeping continuously this
is the question has he been sleeping all
day so probably he the person in the
sentence is still sleeping has he been
sleeping all day so let's look at one
more example of this kind of question
pattern them so another one would be
have they been working on the project so
here i've used have because i'm using
the word they here so a group of people
and again i'm using bin and working on
the project have they been working on
the project meaning from some point in
time in the past have they maybe a team
or a group of people
continuously so non-stop have they been
working so this question emphasizes
their continued progress their continued
work on the project okay
let's finish up with a different kind of
question pattern so again when you use a
question word like who which what or how
for example
we can use has or have again here
depending on the subject of the sentence
so i think that this part is the same as
the question pattern we just talked
about so let's just take a look at the
example sentences here first one how
have you been exercising lately how have
you been exercising lately so this how
by the way means in what way have you
been exercising lately so in this case
the speaker probably knows that the
listener has been exercising lately and
the speaker wants to know how meaning in
what way
so how have you been exercising lately
meaning in the past up until now in this
period continuously what has been your
method of exercise or what's the way
you've been exercising this is what the
speaker is asking
in the last one where has he been
keeping his files so here my question
word is where
has he
been again and keeping in this case
keeping is in the progressive or the
continuous tense where has he been
keeping his files so in this sentence
for example maybe someone is searching
for
some files or some data
maybe a colleague is absent for example
and the speaker wants to know where has
he been keeping so from the past until
now where has he been keeping his files
so when we want to emphasize something
that started in the past continues to
the present or there's something we're
really focusing our effort or our energy
on we can use the present perfect
continuous tense to do that
so if you want to emphasize maybe the
completion of an action something that
has finished we can use the present
perfect tense
like he has studied english for six
months
and he has been studying english for six
months they yes they communicate the
same thing but using he has studied
english for six months doesn't sound
like so much effort continues to be put
into the study if you want to really
emphasize your effort you should use the
progressive form he has been studying
english for six months sounds like it's
continuing it sounds like there's more
focus on that activity so try to keep
this slight difference in mind and if
you really want to
emphasize your effort and your focus try
using the continuous form of the present
perfect tense instead of just the
present perfect so i hope that this was
helpful for you if you have any
questions or comments or if you'd like
to try to make an example sentence
please feel free to do so in the comment
section below this video if you liked
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resources thank you very much for
watching this lesson and i will see you
again soon bye-bye
[Music]