Present Perfect Continous Tense

This tense is used to talk about an action or actions that started in the past and continued until recently or that continue into the future:

We can use it to refer to an action that has finished but you can still see evidence.

·         Oh, the kitchen is a mess. Who has been cooking?

·         You look tired. Have you been sleeping properly?

·         I've got a a stiff neck. I've been working too long on computer.

It can refer to an action that has not finished.

·         I've been learning Spanish for 20 years and I still don't know very much.

·         I've been waiting for him for 30 minutes and he still hasn't arrived.

·         He's been telling me about it for days. I wish he would stop.

The present perfect continuous is often used with 'since', 'for', 'all week', 'for days', 'lately', 'recently', 'over the last few months'.

·         I've been wanting to do that for ten years.

·         You haven't been getting good results over the last few months.

·         They haven't been working all week. They're on strike

·         He hasn't been talking to me for weeks.

The formula of present perfect continous tense

(+) = S + have/ has + been + Ving + O Example : I have been working for 3 years (-) = S + have/ has+ not + been + Ving + O Example : I have  not been working for 3 years (?) = have/ has + S+ been + Ving + O Example : have I been working for 3 years?