The Present Perfect Continuous
Zoom in on the activity itself — show that something has been happening up to now, recently, or again and again, using have / has + been + a verb ending in -ing.
Choose a subject. A form. A use.
Five subjects, three forms, three uses — 45 combinations, all present perfect continuous. Watch how have / has + been shifts with the subject and the sentence rebuilds around it.
Got the pattern? Jump to the practice →
The rules — with examples
How to build the three forms, when to use the present perfect continuous, and the words that signal it.
The three forms
She has been working late.
He hasn’t been feeling great.
Has she been crying? — No, she’s just tired.
he / she / it = has. All other subjects = have. Been never changes — it always sits between have / has and the main verb, which always takes -ing.
Three reasons to use the present perfect continuous
Present perfect continuous vs. present perfect simple
The key rule: as soon as a sentence states how many or how much was achieved — four chapters, three emails, the whole book — switch to the present perfect simple. The continuous form describes the activity itself, not a countable result.
Verbs that resist the continuous
State verbs describe a state, not an action — they are almost never used in continuous forms, in any tense. Say “I have known her for ten years,” never “I have been knowing her for ten years.”
Signal words & position
Practice & score yourself
Ten questions — five multiple choice, five gap-fill. Instant scoring and a short explanation for every answer.
The one rule to remember
Use have / has + been + verb-ing when you want to highlight the activity itself — its duration, or the evidence it has left behind — rather than a finished result. The moment you need a specific number or a completed outcome (I’ve read three chapters), switch to the present perfect simple.