Hello teachers,
Do you agree with these explanations as a general guideline?
The focus with the present perfect is to state how long something/a concluded past action took.
Let’s look at the following exchange between 2 people:
Adam: What is the longest time that you have spent cooking without a break?
Ben: Two hours. I’ve cooked for 2 hours straight several times already this week.
This expresses the idea that the cooking (an event that is completed) lasted 2 hours. (Ben lost 2 hours of his life in the kitchen.)
The focus with the present perfect progressive is to show how long something which started in the past and is still ongoing is taking.
I have been cooking for 2 hours/since noon. (And I am still not finished cooking.)
Do you think these ones are better?
The present perfect + ‘since; for’ expresses a completed activity that may or may not have been recent. The present result is more important then the activity and its duration.
Example:
Peter has walked for 5 hours. That’s why he’s very tired.
The present perfect progressive + ‘since; for’ shows that an activity is continuing up to the present time, or was very recently completed. The activity and its duration is more important than the present result.
Example:
Peter has been walking for 5 hours. Even though he is very tired, he’s still walking.
Of course I won’t use the PPP with stative verbs.
I’ve also read that the present perfect continuous is used with the prepositions ‘since’ and ‘for’ for short time situations, and the present perfect for long time ones. Is that so?
Hello Anglophile,
Thank you for your opinion. I’ve read that with the verbs ‘live, work, teach, and study’, to indicate the duration of an action from past to present, we use either the present perfect or the present perfect progressive with essentially the same meaning.
The use of these tenses is really not concerned with the length of time. You are right to suggest that the simple form can either indicate a recent past or indeed an indefinite past and the continuous form hints at a future activity.
This, I am afraid. doesn’t hold water. We can say - I have taught English - to mean this happened at some indefinite time. We say - I have been teaching English - to mean that I am still doing this.
Hello Alan.
Thank you for your reply. You’re very right. It can only be used to talk about the length of time if we use the prepositions ‘since’ and ‘for’ with both tenses.
Well, yes. To me, he treats the present perfect activity as being complete and the present perfect progressive activity as continuing. (No matter how long the activity continued or continues)
Hello Alan,
Then, the focus with the present perfect and the prepositions ‘since’ and ‘for’ is to state how long something/a concluded past action took, and the focus with the present perfect progressive is to show how long something which started in the past and is still ongoing is taking.
Is that always so?
Are these examples and the explanations correct?
a) I have been going to school for half a month. = I have been attending classes for half a month.
b) I have gone to school for half a month. = I am not going to school now. I am not attending classes nowadays.
I’ve read somewhere that if a sentence in the present perfect can be changed into the simple present and makes sense it is because the present perfect tense is correctly used. Is it right?
I’ve said that rule with the verbs ‘live, work, teach, and study’ because I found the explanation in quite a few pages on the net. Then it isn’t right at all, is it?
Hello Anglophile,
Thank you for your explanation.
Then, as you’ve told me the present perfect describes a completed activity and the present perfect progressive describes a continuing activity. (No matter how long the activity continued or continues).
The above is right, no matter if the prepositions ‘since’ and ‘for’ are in the sentence or not; right?
Yes, I’d say, as regards the concept. But the presence of the prepositions matters. You need to use for or since if you want to mention the time. And we use for to refer to a period of time and since to a point in time.
