This document summarizes the uses of the present perfect continuous and present perfect tenses, as well as the past perfect continuous and past perfect tenses. The present perfect continuous is used to describe an activity that began in the past and continues in the present, or to draw a conclusion about a recent activity. The present perfect describes something that recently finished or shows the results of a past activity. The past perfect continuous describes an activity that was ongoing up until a past point in time, while the past perfect expresses how many times something occurred or describes a past state.

1. Grammar
Present perfect continuous and
present perfect
Past perfect continuous and past
continuous

2. Present perfect continuous
• expresses an activity in progress until
recently or until the time of speaking
Have you been working in the garden all
day?
She’s been writing the book for decades
and it’s finally finished

3. Present perfect continuous
• when drawing a conclusion, i.e. to
complain or criticize
Who’s been messing around with my
papers?
You’ve been eating junk food again,
haven’t you?

4. Present perfect continuous
• to emphasize an ongoing and
repeated activity
Joseph has been kicking a football against
the wall all day.
The workers have been calling for a strike.

5. Present perfect
• to show something that has recently
finished if we can still see its results
He’s broken his finger and is in a lot of
pain.

6. Present perfect
• to show the results of an activity or
circumstance
Prices have increased by 7%
I’ve used three tins of paint on the
kitchen walls.

7. Past perfect continuous
• for something that was in progress
recently before or up to a past point
in time
I’d been finishing some work in the
garden when Sue arrived.

8. Past perfect continuous
• situation or activity that went on
before a particular past time
She felt terrible during the interview
because she had been suffering from the
flu since Thursday.
We’d been driving for about an hour
when the engine suddenly stopped.

9. Past perfect
• how many times
I had stayed in the hotel twice in the
1980s.

10. Past perfect
• describing states
We had owned the car for 6 months
before we discovered it didn’t run.