Unit 2: Hidden talents
Present perfect continuous
Select a unit
- 1Pop-ups
- 2Hidden talents
- 3Can't buy me love
- 4Travellers' tales
- 5The colleague from hell
- 6Jurassic mystery: unpacking the past
- 7Career changes
- 8Art
- 9Project management
- 10The dog ate my homework!
- 11The diary of a double agent
- 12Fashion forward
- 13Flat pack skyscrapers
- 14Extreme sports
- 15Food fads
- 16Me, my selfie and I
- 17Endangered animals
- 18A nip and a tuck: cosmetic surgery
- 19I'm really sorry...
- 20Telling stories
- 21Fakes and phrasals
- 22Looking to the future
- 23Becoming familiar with things
- 24From rags to riches
- 25Against the odds
- 26Our future on Mars?
- 27Where is it illegal to get a fish drunk?
- 28Dodgy dating
- 29Annoying advice
- 30I'll have been studying English for thirty weeks
Session 2
Which tense is this: How long have you been learning English? It's the present perfect continuous - and that's what we're looking at in this session.
Activity 2
Which tense to use?
No time like the present... perfect continuous
Understanding how to form verb tenses is important, but it's no good if you use them in the wrong situations. This test will help you practise when and where you can use the present perfect continuous.
Read the text and complete the activity
To do
In the picture above, we have a jogger, a tennis ball, a person sleeping in the office and a bus stop. You're going to answer questions with these things in them.
Intense tenses
6 Questions
Choose the best tense for these situations. For some questions, both answers are possible
Help
Activity
Choose the best tense for these situations. For some questions, both answers are possible
Hint
You can use two different forms to talk about thisQuestion 1 of 6
Help
Activity
Choose the best tense for these situations. For some questions, both answers are possible
Hint
We can use the present perfect continuous for actions which have recently finishedQuestion 2 of 6
Help
Activity
Choose the best tense for these situations. For some questions, both answers are possible
Hint
For this one, it doesn't matter whether the activity has stopped or not...Question 3 of 6
Help
Activity
Choose the best tense for these situations. For some questions, both answers are possible
Hint
What's important here - the fact your friend is smoking, or the idea that he has been doing it for a period of time in the past?Question 4 of 6
Help
Activity
Choose the best tense for these situations. For some questions, both answers are possible
Hint
The action (sleeping badly) is still continuing the present timeQuestion 5 of 6
Help
Activity
Choose the best tense for these situations. For some questions, both answers are possible
Hint
You're still waiting...Question 6 of 6
Excellent!Great job!Bad luck!You scored:
Next
So, we hope you now feel more confident about knowing when and where to use the present perfect continuous. To help you feel even better, listen to 6 Minute Grammar, next!
Session Grammar
Present perfect continuous tense
Meaning and use
To talk about an activity that started in the past and is continuing now or has recently finished.
- I’ve been reading that new book you lent me…
Form - positive and negative
subject + have/has/haven’t/hasn’t + been + present participle of main verb
- He’s been revising all day
- I haven’t been drinking coffee recently
Form - question
- Have you been eating biscuits?
