Present Perfect Continuous

Read an extensive course syllabus that explains what each activity is, how to complete it and how it will help you improve your use and understanding of the present perfect continuous tense.

We set out the key objectives for this course so you can identify what you need to learn. We provide a downloadable checklist that you can print out to check off the points as you go through the course.

A presentation that explains what tenses are, why we need them and how the tense system works in English. As well as a presentation, you can test yourself using our interactive question and answer flashcards.

Before starting the grammar section of this course, we provide you with all the correct materials. This includes the slides used in our grammar presentations with notes lines and an interactive worksheet, which you can answer whilst watching the videos. We provide the correct answers to this interactive worksheet too and point you to our grammar forum, where you can ask any questions about the correct grammar of the present perfect continuous tense.

Learn about the three situations when the present perfect continuous tense should be used. As well as in-depth explanations, you'll see numerous example sentences, which we present on timelines so you can visualise how this tense should be used.

One of the key parts of the present perfect continuous tense is the present participle. Luckily, there are strict spelling rules and patterns to form the present participle and this video teaches them all. We provide numerous example verbs along with a PDF printout that summarises all the rules in one easy-to-follow table.

This grammar video teaches the affirmative form of the present perfect continuous tense. We also introduce the topic of contractions.

This grammar video teaches the negative form of the present perfect continuous tense. We also review the topic of contractions.

There are two different structures that we can use to make questions in the present perfect continuous tense and this video teaches them both. We explain our acronyms which can help you remember the structure easily and provide numerous example questions too.

Most courses don't incorporate short responses into their content, but at Virtually Fluent we want to teach you everything. This video explains what a short response is, why it's needed to "fit in" to the polite English-speaking culture and how you can form them in the present perfect continuous tense.

Keywords are special words that work very well with one tense. In this video, we explain the most common keywords in the present perfect continuous tense. We explain their position in the sentence, whether they require time phrases or not and if they work in affirmative, negative or question sentences.

After lots of teaching experience, we have identified the most common mistakes made when trying to use the present perfect continuous tense. We explain the top 3 and point out how you can avoid making these same mistakes yourself.

This presentation provides real-life examples of the present perfect continuous tense. We have extracted examples from news articles online to show you how native speakers use the present perfect continuous in their everyday lives.

Before starting the pronunciation section of this course, we provide you with all the correct materials. This includes the slides used in our pronunciation presentations with notes lines and an interactive worksheet, which you can answer whilst watching the videos. We provide the correct answers to this interactive worksheet too and point you to our pronunciation forum, where you can ask any questions about the correct pronunciation of the present perfect continuous tense.

Although the letters ING seem relatively simple to pronounce, there are 3 different ways you could say them. In this video, we explain what these three different pronunciations are and provide close-up clips so you can replicate it yourself.

Word stress is a very important part of the English language. In this pronunciation video, we explain what word stress is, how to do it and why it's important for pronouncing words with a present participle ending.

When saying any tense with an auxiliary verb, which includes the present perfect continuous tense, the emphasis is very important. We need to stress the correct words to convey what we want to say correctly. In this pronunciation video, we review the basic sentence stress rules that apply to the present perfect continuous tense.

This activity provides you with numerous sentences in the present perfect continuous tense. You can practise reading them out loud to ensure your present perfect continuous pronunciation is correct. You can easily download the document in PDF format and listen to audios of our native teachers saying these phrases too, so you can listen and repeat or copy at the same time.

A sub-topic of this tense is being able to convert verbs into their present participle formation. Use these verb flashcards to test your ability to turn any verb into its present participle form.

Use our downloadable or online flashcards to practise describing events that have just happened in the present perfect continuous tense. You can practise the affirmative form of the tense as well as vocabulary for everyday activities.

The present perfect continuous is a tense that is very regularly used in conversation because it connects the past and present times together. Here, we provide you with the typical questions that are most commonly asked in the present perfect continuous tense, so you can be prepared to answer them if somebody asks.

Use our downloadable or online flashcards to read out various present perfect continuous statements. As well as practising the correct pronunciation of present perfect continuous sentences, you can then debate these. You can decide if they apply to you or not and continue a general discussion.

Create your own present perfect continuous sentences in question, affirmative and negative forms. Use our emotion and verb cards to guide you and use your general vocabulary in English to create the sentences.

Practise your use of keywords in the present perfect continuous and general time phrases with our flashcards. You’ll also get to practise forming present perfect continuous sentences in a way that applies to you and your life, so you’ll be practising relevant vocabulary and phrases.

Using our activity forum, read a list of facts about a celebrity and try to guess which celebrity it is. You can then do the same by writing some key facts about a celebrity whilst the other course participants must guess who it is. Of course, you’ll be using the present perfect continuous when creating your sentences.

This review page summarises everything you learnt in this course in two pages, including the form, use, structure, keywords and pronunciation rules.

This page summarises everything you have learnt in our course, so you can review your achievements.

We always appreciate any feedback from our learners. Here you have the chance to fill in an optional questionnaire telling us what you liked and didn't like so we can keep on improving for our future learners.