Практикум по грамматике английского языка : учебное пособие

PRESENT PERFECT CONTINUOUS VS PRESENT PERFECT SIMPLE
Present Perfect Continuous
Present Perfect Simple
is used:
1) to talk about how someone has 
been spending time and the final 
achievement is NOT important
(the action may be finished or not 
fin ished)
I’ve been running all morning.
How long have you been having 
driving lessons?
is used:
1) when the action is finished and the 
final achievement is important
I’ve run six kilometres so far this 
morning. How many driving lessons 
have you had?
2) for situations which are more tem-
porary (continuing for a short time)*
He’s been living there for a week. 
I’ve been working very hard recently.
2) for situations which are more 
permanent (continuing for a longer 
time)*
He’s always lived there. You’ve 
worked hard all your life.
3) with verbs not used in the contin-
uous tense
I’ve known him for ten vears. 
They’ve always had a big garden. 
He’s been in hospital since his acci-
dent.
* Sometimes there is only a small difference in meaning between the two forms.
I’ve been working/I’ve worked for the company for ten years.
Exercise 13. Read the situations and write two sentences using the 
words in brackets.
Example: Steve started reading a novel an hour ago. He is still 
reading it and he is on page 45.
(read/for an hour) He’s been reading for an hour. 
(read/45 pages so far) He’s read 45 pages so far.

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1. When they left college, Sophie and Amy started making films together. 
They still make films.
(make/films/since they left college) 
(make/six films/since they left college)
2. Robin started his company three years ago when he moved to Boston. He’s 
still running it.
(own/this company/for three years) 
(run/his company/since he moved to Boston)
3. Dorin is writing an essay. She began writing it three hours ago. She’s still 
working on her essay.
(work on her essay/for three hours) 
(not finish it/yet)
4. Edward is building a new country cottage. It is still under construction. 
(build/his country cottage/for a month)
(build/one storey/so far)
5.The job is well-paid. But Chuck doesn’t like it. He finds it too boring. He 
needs a new job.
(do/the same job/for too long) 
(not apply/for another job/so far)
6. It’s a formal party, so Walter has to wear a tuxedo. He looks very ridicu-
lous.
(never/wear a tuxedo/before)
(wear/casual clothes/all life)
7. It’s a 3-mile walk from Sam’s house to the city centre. He started an hour 
ago and has just reached it.
(walk/to the city-centre/for an hour) 
(walk/3 miles)
8. Laura started the washing machine up an hour ago. There are now 30 clean 
shirts in the basket.
(wash/30 shirts) 
(wash/for an hour)
9. The tourist came into the old town an hour ago. He is leaving now with 60 
new photographs.
(take/60 photographs/so far) (take/photographs/for an hour)
10. The typist started two hours ago. Six letters are ready now. 
(type/six letters)
(type/for two hours)

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