Present perfect simple / present perfect progressive?

English as a Second Language English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
1

Hello!
I have the sentence: "(I /not finish) the book yet so I can’t tell you what happens. (taken from 'Destination B2 written by Malcolm Mann and Steve Taylor)
My choice is to use present perfect continuous (I haven’t been finishing) because it is about a continuous, developing action but at the answer key it is present perfect simple. (I haven’t finished).
Why?
Thank you for your time!

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2

You need the present perfect here because you describe an outcome and not a process:

I haven’t finished the book yet so I can’t tell you what happens/what is happening/what happened.

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3

The sentence could be completed as below:

I haven’t finished (reading) the book yet, so I can tell you what happens/what will happen (in the end).

  • You need to use the present perfect tense construction here because you refer to an activity (reading) that started at some time in the past, and you want to mention to the listener/reader as to what has happened till now.
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4

I think the present perfect focuses on results more than on activities. Let’s have a look at some examples:

Has the mail arrived yet? (I’m interested in the status, not in the activity that led to the status.)
Have they signed the contract? (I’m interested in the result, not the activity that led to it.)

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5

Yes, Torsten, but we can’t ignore the activity that led to the result.
In your examples, we can assume the context this way:
'Has the mail arrived yet (since it was posted yesterday)?
Have they signed the contract (since they agreed on it last week)?
So, in my opinion, there has to be some activity leading to the result which is positive or negative. As you say, we are more concerned about the result or the outcome than about the activity that causes the result which we tend to focus on.

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6

I agree, but most English learners are confused when it comes to distinguishing between the Present Perfect Simple and the Present Perfect Progressive because this concept does not exist in their native languages. To facilitate their learning process, I find it useful to explain that one of the two forms focuses more on the outcome while the other focuses on the action/process.

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