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Questions and Answers
Instead of saying 'I went shopping,' we would say 'I am going ______.'
shopping
The present perfect continuous emphasizes ______ while the present perfect emphasizes result.
duration
Simple sentences in present perfect continuous follow the pattern subject + auxiliary verb 'have' + past participle of the main verb. They look like this: 'She has ______ all day.'
studied
Questions in present perfect continuous start with an interrogative word, such as 'Have they ______?'
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Negative sentences in present perfect continuous begin with either 'Not...' or 'Never...', and end with the subject and auxiliary verb in their normal position. For example, 'He ______ never finished his homework.'
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Emphatic expressions in present perfect continuous usually take the form 'How much / many...have I ______?'
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Study Notes
In English grammar, tense is used to show when something happened. There are three main tenses: simple past, present simple, and future simple. However, there's also another form called the present perfect continuous which can cause some confusion because it combines two different aspects of verbal action—the progressive aspect (ongoing) with the present time reference. This tense shows an action happening up until now, so it doesn't matter if you started doing something yesterday or last week; what matters is how long you have been doing it by today. For example, instead of saying "I went shopping," we would say "I am going shopping." Another difference between the two is that the present perfect continuous emphasizes duration while the present perfect emphasizes result.
The present perfect continuous has four basic structures: simple sentences, questions, negatives, and emphatic expressions. Simple sentences follow the pattern subject + auxiliary verb 'have' + past participle of the main verb. They look like this: "She has studied all day;". Questions start with an interrogative word, such as "Have they worked?", followed by the subject and auxiliary verb in the usual place. Negative sentences begin with either "Not..." or "Never...", and end with the subject and auxiliary verb in their normal position. Emphatic expressions usually take the form "How much / many... have I done?" or "How often do I go out?," where the emphasis is on the amount done or frequency.
In summary, the present perfect continuous is one of several tenses in English that help us express various meanings related to actions completed up until now or still ongoing. It allows us to convey more specific information about our experiences and activities through its various sentence structures.
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Description
Learn about the present perfect continuous tense in English grammar, which combines the progressive aspect with present time reference to show ongoing actions up until now. Understand its structure, usage, and differences from other tenses like present simple and present perfect.
