5. The perfect- continuous tenses

The Perfect Continuous form denotes an action in progress, whose duration before a definite moment in the present, past or future is expressed. It is formed by means of the auxiliary verb to be in one of the perfect tenses and Participle I of the notional verb. to have been + Participle I

The Present Perfect Continuous is used to denote an action which began in the past, has been going on up to the present and is still going on.

The Present Perfect Continuous is formed by means of the Present Perfect of the auxiliary verb to be and Participle I of the notional verb.

The Past Perfect Continuous Inclusive denotes an action which began before a definite moment in the past, continued up to that moment and was still going on at that moment. The Past Perfect Continuous is formed by means of the Past Perfect of the auxiliary verb to be and Participle I of the notional verb.

	Present	Past	Future
Affirmative	have been + Participle I has	had been + Participle I	shall have        been + Participle I will have
Interrogative	Have Ⓢbeen + Participle I? Has	Had + Ⓢbeen Participle I?	Shall      Ⓢ + have been Participle I? Will
Negative	have Ⓢ + not been Participle I has	Ⓢ had not been Participle I	shall Ⓢ    not + have been Participle I will

The Future Perfect Continuous denotes an action which will begin before a definite moment in the future, will continue up to that moment and will be going on at that moment. The Future Perfect Continuous is formed by means of the Future Perfect of the auxiliary verb to be and Participle 1 of the notional verb.

In the interrogative form the first auxiliary verb is placed before the subject.

In the negative form the negative particle not is placed after the first auxiliary verb.

TEST YOURSELF

1. What does the Perfect-Continuous Tense denote?

2. What does the Present Perfect-Continuous Tense denote?

3. What does the Past Perfect-Continuous Tense denote?

4. What does the Future Perfect-Continuous Tense denote?

5. How is the Present Perfect-Continuous Tense formed

6. How is the Past Perfect-Continuous Tense formed

7. How is the Future Perfect-Continuous Tense formed

8. How do we make an interrogative forms?

9. How do we make a negative forms?

Exercise 1. Put questions to the italicized words.

1. He has been playing chess since the childhood. 2. His younger brother has been skating for an hour. 3. Mary has been looking after the baby since her mother went to the market. 4. We have been looking for you for half an hour. 5. Ann has been speaking over the telephone for the last ten minutes.

Exercise 2. Replace the infinitives in brackets by the Present Indefinite, Present Continuous, Present Perfect or the Present Perfect Continuous.

1. Where are the pupils? — They (to plant) trees. They (to plant) them since the morning. They always (to plant) trees in October. They already (to plant) several hundred trees this year. 2. Ann (to have) her music lesson now. She (to have) her music lessons twice a week. 3. I am going to take a walk. I (to do) all my home exercises already. I (to do) them for three hours. 4. Since when they (to build) this house? 5. At last I (to find) the book I need. I (to look for) it for a quarter of an hour. 6. Don't shout. Helen (to read) an English book. She (to work) at her English every day. She (to learn) this language for three years. She (to read) many English stories this year. 7. What you (to do) in the morning? 8. What you (to do) since the morning?

Exercise 3. Translate into English.

1. Що ти робиш? — Чекаю автобуса. Скільки часу ти чекаєш його? — Я чекаю його вже десять хвилин. 2. Ми вивчаємо англійську мову. Ми вивчаємо її вже чотири роки. 3. З якого часу його батько працює головним інженером заводу? 4. Дощ іде зранку. 5. Ніна загубила ручку, вона вже чверть години шукає її. 6. Микола закінчив середню школу три роки тому. З того часу він працює на заводі. 7. Коли ви почали читати цю книжку? Скільки розділів ви вже прочитали? Скільки часу ви читаєте її? 8. Учні вже півтори години обговорюють роман, який вони читали минулого місяця.

Exercise 4. Translate into English.

1. Коли я, увійшов до класу, учні обговорювали план екскурсії. Вони обговорювали його вже 20 хвилин. 2. Коли Ольга закінчила інститут, її сестра вже п'ять років викладала англійську мову в школі. 3. Його батьки залишили квартиру, в якій вони прожили двадцять років. 4. Я шукав свій зошит півгодини, перш ніж знайшов його під газетою.

5. Вчора листоноша приніс мені лист. Я чекав цього листа три тижні. 6. Коли ми вийшли з дому, йшов дощ. Він ішов уже дві години.