He estado trabajando desde las 7.00.
I have been working since 7.00.
Han estado bailando desde que se abrió la discoteca.
They have been dancing since the disco opened.Compare the first example with the following sentence: Ha dormido toda la mañana,
‘He slept/has slept the whole morning.’ In this sentence, which also denotes a
prolonged action which began in the past, it is unclear whether this action is still
in progress.73.3 Referring to the immediate past
73.3.1 Acabar de+ infinitive, to have just + past participle
This construction with acabar is very frequent in spoken Spanish, and it denotes closer
proximity to the past than the one with the perfect. If the reference point is the present,
as in ‘He has just left’, then we must use acabar in the present.
María Luisa acaba de irse.
María Luisa has just left.
Acaba de salir.
He/she has just gone out.
Acabamos de llegar.
We have just arrived.
Acaban de desayunar.
They have just had breakfast.
If we wish to refer to the immediate past in relation to some other moment in the past,
as in ‘He had just come in’ (when it happened), we use the imperfect of acabar instead
of the present.
Acababa de entrar.
He/she had just come in.
Acabábamos de sentarnos a la mesa.
We had just sat at the table.
Acababan de cenar.
They had just had dinner.The use of acabar de+ infinitive in these sentences instead of the perfect lays the stress
on the immediacy of the past. Compare for instance the first example above, María
Luisa acaba de marcharse, ‘María Luisa has just left’, with María Luisa se ha
marchado, ‘María Luisa has left’. The first sentence tells us that María Luisa left a
moment ago, while the second one indicates that she left recently, today or this
morning for instance.Referring to the immediate past 73.3