![]() ![]() For example, “The doctor will have been working for 24 hours by the time his shift is finished.” With the future perfect progressive, it is not always clear if the –ing verb started in the past or will start in the future. The order of the actions can be reversed with either form.įor example, “By the time the plane arrives, I am going to have been waiting for five hours.” The other way to form the future perfect progressive is using “be going to have been” plus a present participle followed by “when” or “by the time” and the second action. The simple future is never used with the second action. One is by using “will have been” plus a present participle, followed by “when” or “by the time” and the second action.įor example, “I will have been working for 35 years by the time I retire.” Notice that the second planned action, retire, is in the simple present. There are two ways to form the future perfect progressive. The future perfect progressive describes the duration of an action as it relates to a future event. We will end with the future perfect progressive. He was talking loudly because he had been drinking. My clothes were wet because it had been raining. The past perfect progressive can also describe a recently completed action. He had been teaching for 12 years before he was certified. She had been living there since she was a child. I had been studying for 12 years by the time I graduated from high school. ![]() The second action uses the simple past tense. You will also see the adverbs before, when or by the time used to introduce a second action. Notice how the past perfect progressive often includes the adverbs for and since to express duration. You form the past perfect progressive by using had been followed by an – ing verb. The past perfect progressive emphasizes the duration of a past action before another action happened.įor example, “I had been smoking for 10 years before I quit.” Let us move on to the past perfect progressive. “I have been” will sound like, “I’ve been.”Įxpert grammarian and teacher Betty Azar tells English learners: “ Don’t expect slow, careful pronunciation of helping verbs in normal conversation.” ![]() You should not say, “I’ve been knowing you for a long time.” If you have a stative verb, use the present perfect: “I have known you for a long time.”Īlmost all native speakers will contract, or shorten the pronoun that comes before have or has. A stative verb describes unchanging situations, often mental states such as realize, appear and seem. Remember that stative verbs cannot be used in any progressive tense. Or you notice that a co-worker is looking tanned. Imagine your friend comes to your house with red, puffy eyes. Sometimes we use it to refer to recently completed actions. In all of these sentences, the emphasis is on how the finished activity relates to the present.Ī time reference is not required to use the present perfect progressive. I have been studying since I was a child. But the emphasis is on the completed part of the action. You form the present perfect progressive by using have been (or has been) followed by an –ing verb.įor instance, “She has been sitting in class since early this morning.” The action, sitting, is continuing. Let’s start with the present perfect progressive. ![]() It will have been snowing for three days by the time it stops. It had been snowing for two days before it stopped. Perfect progressive tenses often answer the question how long? There are three perfect progressive tenses: the present perfect progressive, the past perfect progressive, and the future perfect progressive. “I had been waiting for three years by the time my application was approved.” In this example, the emphasis is on duration of the first verb waiting. Think about this sentence in the past perfect progressive: Perfect progressive sentences focus on the completion of an action that is, was or will be in progress. When you talk about grammar, perfect means “complete,” and progressive means “unfinished.” Make sure you see our episodes on progressive and perfect tenses before trying to learn the perfect progressive tenses.įor English learners, the perfect progressive tenses can be scary.īut they are more straightforward than you might think. This is the last in our four-part series on verb tenses. Editor's note: See An Introduction to Verb Tenses for the first story in this series.įor VOA Learning English, this is Everyday Grammar. ![]()
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