The present perfect progressive. How long has Jake been swimming? It is 1:30 in the afternoon. Jake is swimming right now. She started swimming at one o'clock. [SOUND] How long has she been swimming? She has been swimming for 30 minutes. She must be tired. Let's look at how we form
the present perfect progressive. Of course we need a subject and then we need has or have, been and a verb in the ing form or
a present participle. For example, she has been swimming for
thirty minutes. We can also say,
she has been swimming since 1:00. We use for with an amount of time,
like thirty minutes. And since,
with a specific time in the past. Like 1:00 or maybe yesterday. We can also make shorter forms of this
verb tense by making contractions. Like she's, he's, it's, I've, you've, they've, and we've. All followed by been and I-N-G. For example, you've been watching
this presentation for a few minutes. To make a negative statement, all we need to do is add nots in between have and
been. For example, she has not been swimming. What has she been doing? She's been sleeping. How lazy! We can also make negative
contraction forms. She, he, it, hasn't, I, you, we, they, haven't, followed by been and ing. For example, for the last five minutes,
I haven't been lying on the beach. I've been talking to you about grammar. All right, now let's talk about why we
use the present perfect progressive. We use this tense to
talk about an activity that began in the past and
is in progress right now. We also use it to talk about how long
an activity has been going on or the duration of that activity. For example. [MUSIC] When Shonda got to the party at 7:00,
she started dancing. At 9:00 she was still dancing. Now, it's 12:00 and she is still dancing! Who knows when she'll stop? So we use the present perfect progressive
to show how long she has been dancing. She started in the past,
and she's still doing it. She has been dancing for five hours! She must be exhausted. It is possible to use the present perfect
progressive without since or for. Often we can use it with
the adverbs recently or lately to talk about a recent habit. Grrr, look how strong I am. It looks like someone wants us to know
he's been working out a lot lately. Be careful. You need to be aware of
the differences between the present perfect progressive and
the present progressive. For example,
we can say Emily has been reading for three hours to show that she
started reading three hours ago, and she's still reading. We can also say Emily
is reading right now. However, we cannot use the present
perfect progressive with right now. It is wrong to say Emily has
been reading right now, and we can't use the present
progressive to show duration. So it's impossible to say Emily
is reading for three hours. So with the present perfect progressive, we can show that something started in
the past and is still going on now. We're showing a length of time or
the duration of time of an activity. But with the present
progressive we can only express what is happening right now. When we use the present
perfect progressive it's important that we only use action verbs. For example the horse has been running for ten minutes. They have been dancing all night. I've been driving since the morning. Run, dance, and drive,
are all examples of action verbs that we can use with
the present-perfect progressive. However, we cannot use non-action verbs,
also called verbs of state. For example, we cannot say, I have been
knowing my best friend for ten years. That sound terrible. Instead we would say I have known my best friend for
ten years using the present perfect. Not the present perfect progressive. Here are a few more examples,
of non action verbs, that we shouldn't use in
the present perfect progressive. Except in special cases. Like, understand, seem,
taste, have, appear, prefer. And there are many others. Okay let's practice. Put the words in order
to find out the answer. You will not use all of the words. Steve called Melisa at 5:20. Now it's 5:40, and
they are still on the phone. How long have they been
talking on the phone? Can you use the words on
the right to make a sentence? Good, they have been talking for 20 minutes. Good job. Okay, time for some more practice. Create sentences to show how long
an activity has been in progress. All right, let's start with number 1. The boys met to play soccer at 3:00. They're still playing soccer now at 5:00. They have been playing soccer since 3:00. Number 2, my mom is cooking dinner, she started right when she got
home from work an hour ago. She has been cooking for an hour. Number 3. It's the end of August now, and we've been traveling in Europe
since the beginning of June. We have been traveling for three months. Number 4, it's 6:00 AM and
Bob is still asleep. He has been sleeping for ten hours. He has been sleeping since 8:00PM. Good job.
