The present perfect progressive. You already know that we form the present perfect progressive with have, or has, been, and a present participle, or verb with ing. To make a negative statement, we simply put not between have or has and been. To form a question, we are going to switch the subject and the helping verb so it would become, have you been studying a lot of grammar lately? In this lesson, I'd like to discuss three main uses of the present perfect progressive. I'll show you three quick videos to help me explain these uses. Let's check out the first video, which explains the first use. Here we go. I've been running for twenty minutes. Twenty minutes to go. Let's do this! >> This example illustrates the first use of the present perfect progressive. Which is to talk about the duration of an activity in progress right now that started in the past. I started running twenty minutes ago. I am still running now. I have been running for twenty minutes. We can also use since with this use. It's important to remember that with this use since and four the action is still taking place. Let's take a look at another short video that will show us the second use of this tense. [SOUND] Hello, I'm actually yeah, can I call you right back? Because I'm, I've been running and I'm really out of breath. A second use of the present progressive is to talk about inactivity that started in the past but just ended at the moment of speaking. Unlike the first use that we talked about in which the activity is still going. I have been running, that's why I'm really out of breath. I just stopped with this use the evidence of the activity is visible just take a look a these pictures. It is obvious That I have just finished running. Okay let's check out the third video which explains the third use. >> Hey, I've been meaning to tell you. You look really fit these days, >> Thank you, I've been running a lot lately. Okay this last video shows us the third use of the present perfect progressive. Which is to talk about a recent habit. Clearly I'm not running right now. You saw me I'm wearing normal clothes, right? But I have been running a lot lately. In fact, I ran on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Even though I'm not running right at this moment, I can use the present perfect progressive to say that I have been running a lot lately, or recently you may even hear these days. All right, let's quickly summarize the reasons that we use the present perfect progressive. The first use is to talk about the duration of an activity in progress using since or for. For example, you've been watching this video for six minutes. I'm sure you're getting a little tired. The second use is to talk about an ongoing activity that has just ended in the moment of speaking. For example, after this video I will probably say I've been explaining grammar and my head hurts so now I can go relax and be lazy. And the final reason that we use the present perfect progressive is to talk about a recent habit. We can also use recently and lately with this use. For example, you've been learning a lot of new grammar lately, careful, remember you should not use stative verbs in any progressive tense. When they express a state. Sometimes a stated verb can express an action. And then it's okay. But if it's expressing a state do not use it with ing. For example I have been knowing you for three years. No, please don't say this. You could just say, I have known you for three years. And that sounds great. There are other verbs with non-continuous meanings that are not necessarily stative verbs. It could be tricky to try to use these verbs in the present perfect progressive. These are verbs like drop, lose, miss the bus, and find. There are others, of course, but these are some examples. With these types of verbs, we don't necessarily express an ongoing activity or a continuous activity. We can however express an activity that is repeated over time. Let's take a look at an example to see what I mean Imagine Jake says, you're late, where have you been? I can't say I have just been missing the bus. That's not correct because when one misses the bus, it's an action that happens immediately and then it's over. It's not ongoing. So, we could express this with the present prefect or the simple past. I can say, I have just missed the bus or I just missed the bus. However, there are ways in which we can use these types of verbs in the present perfect progressive. For example, my boss is unhappy because I have been missing the bus lately and have been arriving late to work. This is a grammatically correct sentence, because now we are expressing a recent habit. Remember that third use of the present perfect progressive. It's okay to use this types of verbs with that use, using lately. Or recently. Okay, I've been teaching you the present perfect progressive. But our time is up now. So thank you for listening. See you next time.
