We often use the Present Perfect Continuous to express a continuing activity in the past that still influences the present moment.
We often use the Present Perfect Continuous to ask and answer questions focusing on the duration of an activity. We often use the question How long …+ Present Perfect Continuous.
To make questions in the Present Perfect Continuous, put ‘have’/’has’ before the subject and add ‘been + ‘-ing’ form of the verb:
To create a question that will be answered with a ‘yes’ or ‘no’, use ‘Have‘ / ‘Has‘ (or ‘Hadn’t‘ / ‘Hasn’t‘ for a negative question) + been + -ing verb.
Singular | Plural |
I have (I’ve) been reading You have been reading He/she/it has been reading | We have been reading You have been reading They have been reading |
Note: In short positive answers to the Present Perfect Continuous questions we use only full forms of ‘have’ / ‘has’. In short negative answers we can also use short forms of ‘have’ / ‘has’.
Special questions (also known as wh-questions) are questions that require more information in their answers. They are made using wh- words such as what, where, when, why, which, who, how, how many, how much. In Present Perfect Continuous, we usually use ‘how long‘.
To make a special question, use the same word order as with yes-no questions but put a wh-word before the verb ‘have’ or ‘has’. The structure is:
wh-word + have/has + [subject] + -ing verb
To make negative statements in the Present Perfect Continuous, we use:
have/has not (haven’t/hasn’t) + been + the ‘-ing’ form of the verb
Singular | Plural |
I haven’t been running You haven’t been running He/she/it hasn’t been running | We haven’t been running You haven’t been running They haven’t been running |
See also:
Present Perfect Continuous: Statements
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