The Grammaring Guide to English Grammar with Exercises

The perfect continuous aspect

HAVE + BEEN + VERB-ING

The perfect continuous is not considered as an aspect in itself; it is rather the combination of the perfect and continuous aspects.

It is expressed with the auxiliaries have and been (the third form of be) and the (present participle) -ing form of the verb. Depending on the time of the action, we use one of the following forms of have: the past (had), present (have, has) or modal + infinitive (e.g. will have).

The perfect continuous expresses that the action had, has or will have been in progress for some time at a specific point in time. This point in time may be defined by a time expression (at 5 o'clock) or a clause (when she gets home).

Examples of the perfect continuous:

I

've been waiting

for this moment all my life.

(from when I was born until now)

He

's been ironing

his shirts.

(from some time in the past until now)

By 2005, George

had been living

in Scotland for 20 years. (from 1985 to 2005)

When Mary gets home, Kevin

will have been sleeping

for hours. (Kevin's sleep lasting from some point in time before Mary gets home until she gets home)

I

wouldn't have been

sitting there if I hadn't had to. (from some time in the past until a later time in the past)

Related topics:

The present participle used to form the continuous aspect

Past perfect continuous

Present perfect continuous

Future perfect continuous

The forms of the infinitive

The forms of the participle