Perfect Progressive Tenses

 

Present Perfect Progressive Tense

Present Perfect Progressive Tense shows that something started before now and has continued and may continue even longer. This tense is not very different from the present perfect tense.

The highlight of this tense is on the time that the action goes on, or for how long. It also tells that an action has started before, but it just does not tell exactly when.

This follows the sentence pattern:

    Subject + have/has + been (past participle of "be") + "-ing"+ how long adverbs

The "have/has" in this pattern makes the tense "perfect" and the "been + "-ing" makes it "progressive", giving the "perfect progressive"

examples:

              "I have been waiting for years."

              "She has been searching for a long time."

The sentences above tell that the "waiting" and "searching" started because of the word "been" and that they are continuing because of the "-ing", "waiting" and "searching".

As mentioned, this tense also highlights the length of time that the action goes on. In the two example sentences, "for years" and "for a long time" are used. These phrases are called adverbs of time.

There are three types of adverbs of time.

1.    Adverbs that tell when

                        yesterday, lately, tomorrow, in the afternoon, this morning, the

another day, last year, last month, last November, etc.

2.  Adverbs that tell how long

              for a century, for months, for years, for a long time, all day, all night, the whole afternoon,  an entire hour,  for a day, all week, for a few minutes, etc.

3.  Adverbs that tell how often

                       twice, thrice, a couple of times, once, a few times, etc.

The adverbs of time used in the example sentences are the adverbs that tell for how long.

When the Present Perfect Progressive Tenses are written, adverbs telling for how long are used since an action that goes on is talked about.

Question: Can present perfect and present progressive be used interchangeably?

                       The answer to that is YES, since they have the same meaning. However, sometimes, only one of them is correct, especially if the information that needs to be provided includes how many times an action is done or for how long it is done.

Check the illustration below:

If each sentence structure is checked, the adverbs of time used can be noticed. In the Present Perfect Tense, the "when" adverb is used. In the Present Perfect Progressive, the "how long" adverb. 

Past Perfect Progressive Tense

Past Perfect Progressive Tense shows that something was happening in the past and may have been going on before something else happened.

This follows the sentence pattern:

Subject + had + been + -ing + how long adverbs + object or complement if any + second action/event

"had" is used since the past is talked about. "Had" is the past participle of "has/have". Regardless of the subject, singular or plural, "had" should be used for this tense.

example:

          "Dani had been sitting for two hours when Mandy came."

Meaning: Dani had been sitting continuously for a duration of two hours until Mandy came.

"Dani had been sitting" is the first action/event, and "Mandy came" is the second action/event. The two acts/events are connected by the subordinating conjunction, when.

The first action is the Past Perfect Progressive Tense because of this: "had been sitting”. Dani’s sitting had been happening for two hours before Mandy came.

For it to be easier to identify the Present Perfect Progressive, this should be kept in mind: the focus should always be on the length of time an action has been done. In short, the focus on the adverb that tells FOR HOW LONG and on the phrase “had been” should not be lost.

Future Perfect Progressive Tense

Future  Perfect Progressive Tense emphasizes a continuous action in the future that lasts continuously.

This follows the sentence pattern:

   Subject + will + have (regardless of the subject singular or plural) + been + -ing Verb  +    how long adverbs + object or complement if any

example:

               "They will have been studying for a month."

Future Perfect Progressive Tense has a similar meaning to the Future Perfect Tense when the example sentence above is written into:

               "They will have studied for a month."

NOTE:  But because Perfect Progressive Tense is both perfect and progressive, the continuous action for some period of time should be emphasized: “how long” adverbs should be emphasized.