Which Is Which?

Contents

1) Which Is Which?
2) Vocabulary Box
3) Grammar Spot: Present Perfect Continuous

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TODAY’S JOKE
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Which Is Which?

“That man has been fiddling around for an hour wasting his time?”
“How do you know?”
“I’ve been watching him.”

Fighting Again!

“You’ve been fighting again! You lost two of your teeth!”
“I haven’t lost them, Mum. They are in my pocket.”

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VOCABULARY BOX
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Let’s explain some of the words in today’s joke!

- To fiddle around means to move about with no particular purpose.
- To waste your time means to spend your time carelessly, doing nothing.

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GRAMMAR SPOT
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Present Perfect Continuous Tense

For today’s lesson I’ve chosen two short jokes to illustrate the form and function of Present Perfect Continuous tense.

Present Perfect Continuous is also called the Present Perfect Progressive. I want to underline this fact because it gives us a hint about the use of this tense.

We are going to talk about the situations when we use this tense in the second part of this lesson. Now let’s have a look at the way Present Perfect Continuous is formed.

The structure of the present perfect continuous tense is:

Subject + have/ has + been + present participle of the main verb (verb + ing)

Here are some examples:

I have been waiting for two hours.
She has been talking too much.
It has been raining.
They have been playing football for two hours.

When we use the present perfect continuous tense in speaking, we often contract the subject and the first auxiliary. We also sometimes do this in informal writing.

I’ve been reading all morning.
He’s working two hard.
We’ve been watching TV for three hours.
It’s been snowing a lot this week.

The negative form of Present Perfect Continuous is:

Subject + have/ has + not (haven’t/hasn’t) + been + present participle of the main verb (verb + ing)

She has not been living here since 2005.
They haven’t been playing tennis recently.
I haven’t been smoking for two months.
We haven’ t been jogging lately.

We form the interrogative by inverting the subject and the auxiliary verb “have/has”:

Has he been seeing her lately?
Have you been running?
Has she been sleeping?
Have been doing your homework?

We often use “How long” in questions.

How long have you been learning English?
How long have you been living here?
How long has she been waiting?
How long have they been working?

And there is one more question we haven’t answered yet.

When do we use Present Perfect Continuous tense?

Well, there are two situations:

1. We use Present Perfect Continuous tense to talk about an action or event that started in the past and are still in progress now. What we want to emphasize is the duration of that action or event.

Here are some examples:

She has been studying English for several years.
I’ve been working on this report since ten o’clock this morning.
We have been waiting for you all day.

And don’t forget the first joke I’ve selected for today’s lesson.

2. We use Present Perfect Continuous tense to talk about the effect of recent events. What is important is the result of these recent events

She has been cooking since last night. The food looks delicious.
I feel tired. I’ve been repairing my car all afternoon.
You don’t understand because you haven’t been listening.

Add here the second joke I’ve picked out for this lesson.

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That was all for today. I hope you have enjoyed yourself and learnt
new useful things. Till next time, take care.

Your tutor,
Ana
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