present perfect past perfect
Ihave torn my skirt Hehad won the race
Shehas swum twenty lengths Wehad promised to visit him.
Theyhave danced all night. Theyhad built a new house.Using the perfect progressive tenses
A continuous action is indicated by the use of theperfect
progressivetenses. In this case the past participle of the verb
‘to be’ follows the verb ‘to have’ which in turn is followed by
the present participle of the required verb. The finite verb
then consists of three words.
Present perfect progressive
That doghas been barking all night.
Shehas been crying all day.Past perfect progressive
Hehad been playing football
Shehad been working on the computer.Making mistakes
The present and past participles are often confused. The
presentparticiple is always used with the verb ‘to be’. The
pastparticiple is used with the verb ‘to have’.
The following sentences are wrong:
Iwas sat in the front row.
Hewas stood behind me.The first suggests that someone picked you up and placed
DISCOVERING GRAMMAR / 15