The Present Perfect Progressive tense

The present progressive tense tells us about an action that started in the past and continues to the present.  It refers to an unspecified time between 'before now' and 'now'. The present perfect progressive or the present perfect continuous is the form of the verb that refers to the action that started in the past and continued up until now.

We think the action started in the past and maybe it did not finish at that period of time. So, we are more concerned about the process and the consequence as well. This progress may have finished or it is still going on. When we say perfect we do not mean absolute perfectness but we mean it is finished and done. You can see this example here:

I have been waiting for her all day.

This means I have been waiting for her to come and I am still waiting. It Could be a serious matter or I need to see her for an important cause.

The present perfect progressive shows that something is happening lately or recently. For instance:

The Spanish team has been playing very well.

It means that lately, the team is doing well. I am referring to Barcelona. I like Messy and Nemar. One of the functions of the present perfect progressive tense is the finishing of the action, but we are interested in the result. Such as:

Sarah has been cooking kuskus.

It means she has been doing the cooking since a certain time in the past before now and the kuskus is in front of us on the table which is very hot and delicious. Some verbs have no continuous forms like (want, hear, love, know… etc. ) we can use the simple perfect present tense instead. Examples:

I have wanted to see her.

She has heard everything.

I have hated him since the first day I saw him.

 

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