![]() Notice how the past perfect progressive often includes the adverbs for and since to express duration. You form the past perfect progressive by using had been followed by an – ing verb. The past perfect progressive emphasizes the duration of a past action before another action happened.įor example, “I had been smoking for 10 years before I quit.” Let us move on to the past perfect progressive. “I have been” will sound like, “I’ve been.”Įxpert grammarian and teacher Betty Azar tells English learners: “ Don’t expect slow, careful pronunciation of helping verbs in normal conversation.” You should not say, “I’ve been knowing you for a long time.” If you have a stative verb, use the present perfect: “I have known you for a long time.”Īlmost all native speakers will contract, or shorten the pronoun that comes before have or has. A stative verb describes unchanging situations, often mental states such as realize, appear and seem. Remember that stative verbs cannot be used in any progressive tense. Or you notice that a co-worker is looking tanned. Imagine your friend comes to your house with red, puffy eyes. Sometimes we use it to refer to recently completed actions. In all of these sentences, the emphasis is on how the finished activity relates to the present.Ī time reference is not required to use the present perfect progressive. ![]() I have been studying since I was a child. But the emphasis is on the completed part of the action. You form the present perfect progressive by using have been (or has been) followed by an –ing verb.įor instance, “She has been sitting in class since early this morning.” The action, sitting, is continuing. Let’s start with the present perfect progressive. It will have been snowing for three days by the time it stops. It had been snowing for two days before it stopped. Perfect progressive tenses often answer the question how long? There are three perfect progressive tenses: the present perfect progressive, the past perfect progressive, and the future perfect progressive. “I had been waiting for three years by the time my application was approved.” In this example, the emphasis is on duration of the first verb waiting. Think about this sentence in the past perfect progressive: Perfect progressive sentences focus on the completion of an action that is, was or will be in progress. When you talk about grammar, perfect means “complete,” and progressive means “unfinished.” Make sure you see our episodes on progressive and perfect tenses before trying to learn the perfect progressive tenses.įor English learners, the perfect progressive tenses can be scary.īut they are more straightforward than you might think. This is the last in our four-part series on verb tenses. ![]() 6 - They took their baby to the doctor because she (cry) all night.Editor's note: See An Introduction to Verb Tenses for the first story in this series.įor VOA Learning English, this is Everyday Grammar.5 - How long (she/ learn) English with EC before she went abroad?.4 - He was confident because he (rehearse) hard for the show.3 - She (play) trumpet for 3 years before she joined a band.2 - Tom (watch) TV for two hours when I arrived.1 - We apologised because he (wait) for a long time.Now complete these sentences using the Past Perfect Continuous: Use it when you want to show cause and effect: "I put on weight because I had been eating too much." If you do not want to show a length of time, use the past continuous instead: "They were sleeping before I went to sleep." You can use time expressions like 'for' and 'since' with this tense: "They had been sleeping for an hour before I went to bed." The Past Perfect Continuous shows us that something started in the past and continued up until another time in the past. It is used for past actions that were unfinished when another action happened: "I had been studying at university for 6 months before I met her." - studying at university = past unfinished action I met her (second action happened / interrupted the first action). "They had not been waiting for more than 30 minutes when the bus picked them up."įorm: The Past Perfect Continuous is had been + present continuous (-ing) When to use ![]() "I was exhausted because I had been staying awake too late." "She had been working here for over 2 years before you started working here." Here are a few example sentences Past Perfect Continuous This tense is also called Past Perfect Progressive.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |