October 14, 2015
perfective aspect
We use the present perfect to show that something has continued up to the present
They’ve been married for nearly fifty years.
She has lived in Liverpool all her life.
… or is important in the present:
I’ve lost my keys. I can’t get into the house.
Teresa isn’t at home. I think she has gone shopping.
We use the present perfect continuous to show that something has been continuing up to the present:
It’s been raining for hours.
We’ve been waiting here since six o’clock this morning.
We use the past perfect to show that something continued up to a time in the past:
When George died he and Anne had been married for nearly fifty years.
... or was important at that time in the past:
I couldn’t get into the house. I had lost my keys.
Teresa wasn’t at home. She had gone shopping.
We use the past perfect continuous to show that something had been continuing up to a time in the past or was important at that time in the past:
Everything was wet. It had been raining for hours.
He was a wonderful guitarist. He had been playing ever since he was a teenager.
We use will with the perfect to show that something will be complete at some time in the future:
In a few years they will have discovered a cure for the common cold.
I can come out tonight. I'll have finished my homework by then.
We use would with the perfect to refer to something that did not happen in the past but would have happened if the conditions had been right:
If you had asked me I would have helped you.
I would have helped you, but you didn’t ask me.
You didn’t ask me or I would have helped you.
We use other modals with perfective aspect when we are looking back from a point in time when something might have happened, should have happened or would have happened.
The point of time may be in the future:
We’ll meet again next week. We might have finished the work by then.
I will phone at six o’clock. He should have got home by then.
the present:
It’s getting late. They should have arrived by now.
He’s still not here. He must have missed his train.
or the past:
I wasn’t feeling well. I must have eaten something bad.
I checked my cell phone. She could have left a message.
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Comments
Hello
I need your help, I'm not sure which of these sentences is correct, because the verb HAVE is a stative verb, so I'm not sure if it is correct using Past Perfect or Past Perfect Continuous.
The doctor asked me how long I had had the symptoms.
or
The doctor asked me how long I had been having the symptoms.
had had or had been having ??? which is the correct one?
Thanks in advanced
Hello MayaPipo,
'Have' can be used in a continuous form when it replaces another verb and does not refer only to possession. Here, 'have' replaces 'experience' or 'suffer', and it can be used in continuous forms.
In this context both 'had had' and 'had been having' are possible, though I would say the latter is more likely as it suggests the patient was still suffering at the time of his conversation with the doctor.
Best wishes,
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello Peter
Thanks a lot for your fast response. I also thought the 2 possibilities were Ok, but I wasn't sure and I searched in many web pages but couldn't find the perfect explanation. That's why I decided to ask your team, and it was the perfect decision.
Thanks for your help
Best wishes and a wonderful day
MayaPipo
is it possible to use this sentence as an action which happened in the past and no longer happens in present time " i have played guitar"
for example: i was a boy and i have played guitar and now i'm doing business
.....................................................................................................................
and what is the difference between these two sentences?
1. i had played football
2. i had been playing football,
coz both refer to an action which happened in the past and finished in the past
i studied both two pages you offered to the others and i'm still a little bit confused.
Hello Hannibal,
The present perfect can be used to speak about an action that is finished (e.g. 'I have been to the DDR') but in the specific sentence you ask about it doesn't work. This is because the time when you were a boy has past (whereas in my example, I was in the DDR and am still alive, i.e. the context is my lifetime) – therefore, the past simple is the tense you need here. I'd also recommend the video on our Transport and Travel Scene 2 Language Focus page – it's only a few minutes long and might also help.
As for your second question, there are many different reasons you might want to use 1 or 2, but in general it's a matter of your perspective on the past event. For example, 1 would make sense in the context of explaining how you changed from one sport to another (I had played football, but rugby was so different that I had to start from zero); here you are viewing it as a period of time that's definitely over. 2 would make sense in the context of explaining why you were tired at a specific moment (I was exhausted because I had been playing football); here there is just a short time between playing football and the time described, and there is a direct connection between them.
I hope this helps.
Best wishes,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Good day.
Could you please kindly explain the difference between 'had been waiting' and 'had waited'? Thanks.
Hello onlineenglish,
These two forms are, respectively, the past perfect continuous and the past perfect simple. You can find an explanation of each on the page above and on this page and this page, but for a specific explanation you would need to provide a context - the full sentence, rather than just the verb phrase. This is because aspects (perfective and continuous, in this case) are context-dependent. They tell us how the speaker sees a given action or state, and so the context is crucial. If you can provide the forms in context - in a full sentence - then we'll try to explain the difference in that context.
I think you might also find this page helpful. It deals with the difference between the present perfect simple and continuous, but the distinction is the same for the past perfect, with a different time reference, obviously.
Best wishes,
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Dear Peter,
Thank you very much for your kind reply.
I have read the pages at the links you provided, and I know more now than I did previously. Still, I would be additionally thankful if you could please kindly clarify the differences between sentences 1 and 2 and between sentences 3, 4, and 5, and whether sentence 5 is even grammatically correct. The sentences refer to an event (a woman's father's death) that happened many years ago but is being recollected in the present.
1. She had been waiting inside his hospital room when her father passed away.
2. She had waited inside his hospital room until her father passed away.
3. While she had been waiting for her father to pass away, she had felt no happiness, only sadness.
4. While she had waited for her father to pass away, she had felt no happiness, only sadness.
5. While waiting for her father to pass away, she had felt no happiness, only sadness.
For 3, 4, and 5, 'while' means 'during the time that.'
Also, in 3, 4, and 5, could you please kindly clarify if it is correct to use 'had felt' or to use 'felt' for the emotion that the daughter experienced, such that 3, for example, could read as 'While she had been waiting for her father to pass away, she felt no happiness, only sadness'?
Thank you sir.
'I have been studied' Please let me know is it incorrect or correct sentence. Explain if it is incorrect.
Hello Jnadeem,
This sentence is grammatically correct – it means that other people have studied you. That's a bit of an unusual idea, expressed with the passive voice, but yes, the grammar is correct.
All the best,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
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