Class 6 English Grammar Chapter 17 Verbs Perfect Continuous Tense

Present Perfect Continuous Tense

This tense is used to express an action that began in the past and is continuing at the time of speaking.
Affirmative

1. I have been reading English for seven years.
2. We have been listening to the radio for two hours.
3. They have been living in Delhi since 2003.

Negative

1. I have not been writing letters since noon.
2. The tap has not been running for an hour.
3. Harsh has not been knocking at the door for five minutes.

Interrogative

1. Has he (not) been waiting for you for one hour?
2. Have you been suffering from fever since last Monday?
3. Since when have you been reading this book?

Past Perfect Continuous Tense

This tense shows partial completion alongwith continuity of an action in the Past Tense.

• We had been waiting for you since long.
• The birds had been chirping in the trees since morning.
• Dinesh had been acting occasionally before he joined a job.
• He had not been working in a bank before he went to Japan.

Future Perfect Continuous Tense

This tense shows an action that will begin in the future but may continue for some time.

• She will have been reading the Ramayana since morning.
• We shall have been revising our courses since December.
• Will it have been snowing in Shimla for a week?
• Shall we not have been constructing our houses for two months.