domingo, 1 de julio de 2007

Present Perfect Progressive or Present Perfect Continuous

-Is an action that begans in the past and has just stopped
-how long the action has been happening
-emphasis: length of time of an action

there is usually a suggestion that the activity is not yet completed, or we wish to emphasise the length of time it has lasted or stress the continuous, on-going nature of the activity. The present perfect continuous is often used in conjunction with for or since phrases. Consider the following:

'How long have you been waiting for this bus?' 'I’ve been standing here for over half an hour. These buses never come.'

'I’ve been looking for a summer holiday job for two weeks now, but I still haven’t found one.'

'We’ve been living here in Brighton since 1988 – the year we got married.'

It is constructed like this:
has ('s) / have ('ve) + been + ing

Past Perfect Progressive or Past Perfect Continuous:
how long something had been happening before something else happened

We use the Past Perfect Continuous to show that something started in the past and continued up until another time in the past. "For five minutes" and "for two weeks" are both durations which can be used with the Past Perfect Continuous. Notice that this is related to the Present Perfect Continuous; however, the duration does not continue until now, it stops before something else in the past.

Examples:

They had been talking for over an hour before Tony arrived.
She had been working at that company for three years when it went out of business.
How long had you been waiting to get on the bus?
Mike wanted to sit down because he had been standing all day at work.
James had been teaching at the university for more than a year before he left for Asia.
A: How long had you been studying Turkish before you moved to Ankara?
B: I had not been studying Turkish very long.

It is constructed like this:
had + been + infinitive + ing


Future Progressive or Future Continuous:
-An action will be in progress at a certain time in the future. This action has begun before the certain time.
-Something happens

The future continuous tense expresses action at a particular moment in the future. The action will start before that moment but it will not have finished at that moment.

FORM Future Continuous with "Will"
[will be + present participle]

Examples:
You will be waiting for her when her plane arrives tonight.
Will you be waiting for her when her plane arrives tonight?
You will not be waiting for her when her plane arrives tonight.

FORM Future Continuous with "Be Going To "
[am/is/are + going to be + present participle]
Examples:
You are going to be waiting for her when her plane arrives tonight.
Are you going to be waiting for her when her plane arrives tonight?
You are not going to be waiting for her when her plane arrives tonight