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Chapter 2: Time Travel

III. The Perfect Continuous Tense

1.0 How to Write the Perfect Continuous Verb Tenses

The perfect Continuous Tense is formed by:

  1. Start with the past, present or future form of the helping or auxiliary verb.
  2. Add ‘have/has’.
  3. Add ‘been’.
  4. End with the ‘-ing’ form of the verb (the participle form of the verb is not used to write the Perfect Continuous Tense.  Instead, use the ‘-ing’ form of the verb).

Examples

Past: I had been working.

  • you, he, she, it, we, they forms are the same.

Present:

  • I have been working
  • You have been working
  • He, she, it has been working
  • We have been working
  • You have been working
  • They have been working

Future: I will have been working.

  • You, he, she, it, we, they forms are the same.

1.1 Contractions

Contractions can be formed with the Perfect Continuous Tense; however, contractions are not possible in some cases.  They are used for speaking or for informal written communication.

Table 2.3 Contraction Examples
Singular Plural
Present
I have been eating → I’ve been eating
You have been eating → You’ve been eating
He has been eating → He’s been eating
She has been eating → She’s been eating
It has been eating → It’s been eating		 We have been eating → We’ve been eating
You have been eating → You’ve been eating
They have been eating → They’d been eating
Past (not used in writing)
I had been eating → I’d been eating
You had been eating → You’d been eating
He had been eating → He’d been eating
She had been eating → She’d been eating
It had been eating → It’id been eating		 We had been eating → We’d been eating
You had been eating → You’d been eating
They had been eating → They’d been eating
Future (less commonly used in writing)
I will have eaten → I’ll have eaten
You will have eaten → You’ll have eaten
He will have eaten → He’ll have eaten
She will have eaten → She’ll have eaten
It will have eaten → It’ll have eaten		 We will have eaten → We’ll have eaten
You will have eaten → You’ll have eaten
They will have eaten → They’ll have eaten

1.2 Comparison on How to Write the Perfect and Perfect Continuous Tenses

Table 2.4 Perfect vs Perfect Continuous Tenses
Perfect Tense Perfect Continuous Tense

The Perfect Tense is formed by starting with the past, present or future form of the helping or auxiliary verb ‘Have/Has’.  End with the participle form of the verb.

The Perfect Continuous Tense is formed by starting with the past, present or future form of the helping or auxiliary verb ‘Have/Has’.

  • Add ‘been’
  • End with the ‘-ing’ form of the verb.

Have/Has + Participle Verb

  • Past
    • had worked (regular)
    • had eaten (irregular)
  • Present
    • have/has worked (regular)
    • have/has eaten (irregular)
  • Future
    • will have worked (regular)
    • will have eaten (irregular)

Have/Has + ‘been’ + ‘-ing’ Verb

  • Past: had been + ‘-ing’
  • Present: have/has been + ‘-ing’
  • Future: will have been + ‘-ing’

1.2.1 Participles

Participles are used to form Perfect Tense verbs.  However, it is important to realize that not every participle you see is a Perfect Tense Verb.  Participles actually have many functions.  Only one of them is for the form of the Perfect Tense:

  • They can be used in perfect tense verbs.

    Example

    I have eaten the cake.
  • They can be used as used to form the adjective form of the verb.

    Example

    The eaten cake was good.
  • They can be used to form the passive tense of verbs.

    Example

    The cake has been eaten.
Table 2.5 Participles in Perfect and Perfect Continuous Tenses
Perfect Tense Perfect Continuous Tense

The participle form of the verb can be either regular or irregular.

  • For the regular form of the verb, simply add ‘-ed’, just like the simple past tense.
  • The irregular participle form of the verb is very complicated.  There are a few patterns that it follows, but there are many variations of each verb.

The participle form of the verb is not used to write the Perfect Continuous Tense; instead, use the ‘-ing’ form of the verb.

Examples

Past, Present, and Future of the Irregular Form of the Perfect Tense

  • Past: I have eaten.
  • Present: I had eaten.
  • Future: I will have eaten.

Past: I had been working.

  • you, he, she, it, we, they forms are the same.

Present:

  • I have been working.
  • You have been working.
  • he, she, it has been working.
  • we have been working.
  • you have been working.
  • they have been working.

Future: I will have been working.

  • you, he, she, it, we, they forms are the same.

Study Tip: Slow Practice

Practice slowly.  Your mind remembers the content and not the speed.  You mind does not remember speed, it is the content that you need to know so well, that speed comes naturally.  If you practice at a pace where you feel out of control, your body remembers the tension, so you are practicing having a tense body.  Then when you do it, you will do it with tension because you include ‘tenseness’ with content.  So, you need to ‘unlearn’ tenseness.

Focus on which parts of your body become tense when you learn.  Try to relax these parts.  One way to do this is to purposely tense up the muscles which become tense when you are learning.  Then, try to slowly relax these muscles.  Your mind will remember these muscles and remember which ones to relax.

It is easy to do things in ‘cramming’ panic mode.  If you start early, you HAVE time—don’t act as if you are in a hurry.  If you are in control of slow speed, you will naturally be in control.

Exercises

  1. Write the Present Perfect Continuous forms of the following verbs:
     
    1. drive:                                                          
    2. worry:                                                          
    3. focus on:                                                          
    4. start:                                                          
    5. fly:                                                          
    1. look:                                                          
    2. feel:                                                          
    3. drop:                                                          
    4. build:                                                          
    5. tear:                                                          

     

    Answers show/hide
    1. have been driving
    2. have been worrying
    3. have been focusing
    4. have been starting
    5. have been flying
    1. have been looking
    2. have been feeling
    3. have been dropping
    4. have been building
    5. have been tearing

     

  2. Now write the Perfect Tense Verbs in the Past:
     
    1. drive:                                                          
    2. worry:                                                          
    3. focus on:                                                          
    4. start:                                                          
    5. fly:                                                          
    1. look:                                                          
    2. feel:                                                          
    3. drop:                                                          
    4. build:                                                          
    5. tear:                                                          

     

    Answers show/hide
    1. had been driving
    2. had been worrying
    3. had been focussing
    4. had been starting
    5. had been flying
    1. had been looking
    2. had been feeling
    3. had been dropping
    4. had been building
    5. had been tearing

     

  3. Write these verbs in the Future Perfect Tenses:
     
    1. drive:                                                          
    2. worry:                                                          
    3. focus on:                                                          
    4. start:                                                          
    5. fly:                                                          
    1. look:                                                          
    2. feel:                                                          
    3. drop:                                                          
    4. build:                                                          
    5. tear:                                                          

     

    Answers show/hide
    1. will have been driving
    2. will have been worrying
    3. will have been focussing
    4. will have been starting
    5. will have been flying
    1. will have been looking
    2. will have been feeling
    3. will have been dropping
    4. will have been building
    5. will have been tearing

     

  4. Underline the verbs in the Perfect Tense and double underline the verbs in the Perfect Continuous Tense.  Note: There are some regular Perfect Tense Verbs.
     
    Mitsuka had left to his university class early in the morning.  There had been a typhoon the day before, and it had rained heavily all night.  But by the morning, the rain had stopped and Mitsuka left home and took the bus to the subway train station to go to his classes.  But it took an unusually long time to get to the train station.  The traffic was terrible.  Then, when the bus crossed the bridge right before the train station, he saw that the water in the river had risen unusually high.  Luckily, the dykes on each side of the river had stopped the water from flowing into the area around it.
     
    But when Mitsuka got to the station, he found out that the rain had flooded the subway and the trains were not running.  But rather than taking the bus, which had taken one hour to reach the train station from his home, he decided to walk instead.  He crossed the bridge and started to walk along the road to his home.  He had been walking along the road, but he had not been looking at the river behind him.
     
    Then, he looked back and noticed that water had started to come over the sides of the dykes.  It had been starting to flow across the road in front of him.  A man had been trying to cross the water on his motorcycle, but the fast flowing water swept his motorcycle away from him.  Then Mitsuka decided that he had to get out of the area as fast as possible.  He had been walking across the road, but he quickly decided to go towards a big hill to the west of him.  Finally, he got there, and he was happy to be safe.
     
    Answers show/hide

    Mitsuka had left to his university class early in the morning.  There had been a typhoon the day before, and it had rained heavily all night.  But by the morning, the rain had stopped and Mitsuka left home and took the bus to the subway train station to go to his classes.  But it took an unusually long time to get to the train station.  The traffic was terrible.  Then, when the bus crossed the bridge right before the train station, he saw that the water in the river had risen unusually high.  Luckily, the dykes on each side of the river had stopped the water from flowing into the area around it.
     
    But when Mitsuka got to the station, he found out that the rain had flooded the subway and the trains were not running.  But rather than taking the bus, which had taken one hour to reach the train station from his home, he decided to walk instead.  He crossed the bridge and started to walk along the road to his home.  He had been walking along the road, but he had not been looking at the river behind him.
     
    Then, he looked back and noticed that water had started to come over the sides of the dykes.  It had been starting to flow across the road in front of him.  A man had been trying to cross the water on his motorcycle, but the fast flowing water swept his motorcycle away from him.  Then Mitsuka decided that he had to get out of the area as fast as possible.  He had been walking across the road, but he quickly decided to go towards a big hill to the west of him.  Finally, he got there, and he was happy to be safe.

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English Grammar for Academic Purposes Copyright © 2025 by Randal Thiessen is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

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