As usual, if there is a , that will be the first auxiliary instead, so put the negative after the modal:
modal verb
She should not have been singing on the subway.
The perfect continuous tenses in English: What are they and how to use them?
By: Erin Kuester, Isabel McKay Wed Oct 02 2024
EnglishVerbs
Perfect continuous in English use both the have and the auxiliary verb be. Perfect continuous verbs can be past, present, or future.
Present perfect continuous:
I have been writing a book.
Past perfect continuous:
She had been watching TV for a few hours by dinnertime.
Future perfect continuous:
In May, I will have been living in my house for five years.
Like perfect tenses, perfect continuous verbs describe an event that started before some other particular action or moment.
Like continuous tenses, perfect continuous verbs describe an event that lasts for some significant time.
If that sounds a little complicated, don’t worry! You can definitely master the perfect continuous tenses by the end of this post! We’ll talk about what the perfect continuous is, how to form a perfect continuous verb, when to use them, and what’s the difference between perfect continuous and other verb forms!
What are the perfect continuous tenses in English?
The perfect continuous tenses (also sometimes called perfect progressive tenses) are forms of verbs that we use for an event that started before some other particular time, and has lasted or repeated for a significant time:
I have been living in Boston for three years.
→ This action started before the moment of speaking, and the speaker is emphasizing that this is a significant period of time.
Present perfect continuous, past perfect continuous, and future perfect continuous all use this formula:
have
been
present participle
To form the different tenses, just have:
Present continuous: use have/has:
have / has
been
present participle
I have been waiting for five minutes.
She has been waiting for five minutes.
Present continuous: use had:
had
been
present participle
Harry had been sitting on the bench when it started to rain.
Future continuous: use will have:
will have
been
present participle
By next year, Maggie will have been working here for ten years.
How to form a negative perfect continuous verb?
To make a perfect continuous verb negative, you put the word notafter the first auxiliary verb. This first auxiliary verb is either haveor ,will depending on the tense:
Past / Present Perfect Continuous: first auxiliary is have:
first auxiliaryNo, I have not been waiting long.
Michael stayed home from work yesterday because he had not been feeling well.
Future Perfect Continuous: first auxiliary is will:
first auxiliaryWhen the movie starts, I will not have been waiting for long.
Exception!
How to form a question using a perfect continuous verb?
To form a question using a perfect continuous verb, reverse the position of the first auxiliary verb and the subject. Again, this first auxiliary verb is either have or will, depending on the tense:
Past / Present Perfect Continuous: first auxiliary is have
have / has / had
subject
been
present participle
Have you been sleeping well?
Has Rudolph been studying for the exam?
Who had they been talking to?
Future perfect continuous: first auxiliary is will:
will
subject
have
been
present participle
Will he have been waiting for a long time?
What will you have been studying?
You can generally use these rules for both and , but to learn the full rules, check out our post on forming questions in English!
Tip
Questions with how longwill most often use the use of the perfect continuous tense:
- Speaker A:
How long have you been studying French?
Speaker B:I have been studying French for two years.
- Speaker A:
How long had they been waiting for the bus before it arrived?
Speaker B:They had been waiting for about 15 minutes by the time the bus arrived.
When to use perfect continuous verbs?
All three perfect continuous tenses describe an action that started before some particular time or moment (past, present, or future), and that continued for some time. For example:
I had been playing soccer for 2 hours when my mother came home.
→ It continued for 2 hours before the mother came home.I have been playing soccer for 2 hours.
→ It continued for two hours before the present moment.I will have been playing soccer for 2 hours by the time my mother comes home.
→ Before the mother comes home (in the future) it will continue for 2 hours.
Tip
If the action is short, it can “continue” because it happens over and over:
I had been jumping before my brother walked in.
→ I jumped over and over — that is the only way that a jump can logically continue for a period of time.
Usually we assume that a perfect continuous action is unfinished at our past, present, or future reference time:
Present:
She has been reading that book.
→ The book is not finished now.
Past:
She had been reading that book.
→ The book was not finished at some particular past moment.
Future:
She will have been reading that book.
→ The book will not be finished at some particular future moment.
Tip
With context, we can clarify that a perfect continuous action stopped, but it will still sound as though it is not finished:
Andy has been learning to play the guitar, but now he’s started to learn piano instead.
→ He stopped learning guitar, and he never finished learning guitar.
Important
like ,know, want, believe, have, be etc. aren’t usually used in the continuous form, and we don’t use them in the perfect continuous form either! Instead just use the perfect tense for verbs like these:
❌ I have been having a dog for a year.
✅ I have had a dog for a year.
❌ He’d been knowing John since 1970.
✅ He’d known John since 1970.
Check out this list of stative verbs in English to learn more!
What are some time markers to use with perfect continuous tenses?
Here are some time markers that you can use with present perfect continuous, past perfect continuous, or future perfect continuous:
Time marker | Example |
|---|---|
for + period of time | I have been living here for three years. |
since + starting point | She had been waiting since 2:00pm. |
this + week/month/year | The students have been studying hard this week. |
today | He had been cooking for hours today. |
all day | By the time they get to the hotel, they will have been traveling all day. |
recently | I have been reading a lot of books recently. |
lately | We haven’t been watching much TV lately. |
until + a specific time | I had been living in Paris until last month. |
by + a specific time | We had been talking for three hours by the time dinner started. |
Important
The future perfect continuous is almost always used with:
Time marker | Example |
|---|---|
for + amount of time | for 10 minutes |
since + starting point | since last Tuesday |
all + time word | all week |
You will almost never see the future perfect continuous used without time markers or with time markers other than the three above.
Perfect continuous tenses vs. perfect tenses in English
In English, actions in perfect tenses and perfect continuous tenses always start before some particular past, present, or future moment. The difference is that a perfect tense usually focuses on a finished result of some action, while a perfect continuous tense implies that that action is not finished. Let’s compare!
Present perfect continuous vs. present perfect
We have been cooking dinner.
→ Assumption: The dinner is not ready to eat (= not finished).We have cooked dinner.
→ Assumption: The dinner is ready to eat (= finished).
Present perfect continuous vs. present perfect
He’d been writing a letter before she arrived.
→ Assumption: The letter is not finished yet.He’d written a letter before she arrived.
→ Assumption: The letter is finished.
HOWEVER, when a perfect tense is used with for, since, or all (which describe a duration) the perfect tenses can also be used for unfinished actions. For example:
I have lived here for six years.
→ Assumption: ...and I still live here.
With these time markers, there is very little difference in meaning between the perfect and the perfect continuous, though there can be a slight difference in focus:
The perfect focuses more on the results of doing that action for so long:
She has worked at this bank for 10 years.
→ ...so she now has lots of experience. (focus on results)The perfect continuous is focused on the process of doing that action for so long:
She has been working at this bank for 10 years.
→ …and in that time, lots of things have happened. (focus on the process)
Important
We saw above that the future perfect continuous is almost always used with a for-phrase, since-phrase, or all-phrase. Therefore, there is always very little difference between the future perfect and the future perfect continuous:
Future perfect continuous vs. future perfect
By tomorrow, I will have been working on this puzzle for a week!
→ This focuses more on the fact that you will still be working.By tomorrow, I will have worked on this puzzle for a week!
→ This focuses more on the achievement of spending a whole week.
But both sentences describe a puzzle that will still be unfinished tomorrow!
To see the perfect continuous tenses compared with more English verb tenses, check out this English tense comparison sheet!
Summary
In this post, we’ve talked all about perfect continuous verbs! Here’s all the important information you need to know about the perfect continuous:
The rule for all three perfect continuous tenses is:
have/had/will have
been
present participle
To form the past perfect continuous, use had.
To form the present perfect continuous, use have / has.
To form the future perfect continuous, use will have.
Like the perfect tenses, a perfect continuous action starts before some particular time (past, present, or future).
Unlike the perfect tenses, a perfect continuous action is almost always unfinished at some past moment.
Like the continuous tenses, a perfect continuous action continues or repeats for some amount of time.
Unlike the continuous tenses, a perfect continuous action focuses on time before the main action in a story.
Now you are free to go off into the world and use the perfect continuous tenses in English! Or, maybe it’s time to test your knowledge with these perfect continuous tense activities!
