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Anonymous Posted 13 years ago
Grammar

Present Perf Continuous Usage

Hi, I am an English teacher, I am 40 years old.

I am working with my Intermediate students now using Face2face Intermediate teaching material. I find it quite useful, but for one thing.

Intermediate Work Book Unit 1A Be happy, Exercise 2b (make questions) page 5
b) Have you been clubbing in the last month?

Why Present Perfect Continuous is used speaking about the past (last month)? I have never ever come across with such usage of Present Perfect Continuous Tense, please, explain me the rule, since I need it before 10 Feb 2013 to explain it to my students,

thank you very much,
  

Top answer

Well, first of all, it's not specifically referring to the past. e. has occurred during the month that is still going on.

— GramerFreek

  • Well, first of all, it's not specifically referring to the past.
  • e.
  • has occurred during the month that is still going on.
  • Also, "have you clubbed" and "have you been clubbing" have different meanings.
  • The former could apply even if the subject has only clubbed once.
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2 Answers
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Well, first of all, it's not specifically referring to the past. The phrase is in the last month; i.e. has occurred during the month that is still going on. Also, "have you clubbed" and "have you been clubbing" have different meanings. The former could apply even if the subject has only clubbed once. The latter can refer to any number of times. Therefore, the sentence's actual meanin
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Anonymousb) Have you been clubbing in the last month?
The rule of thumb is, do not use past time marker with present perfect use. You may say " Have you been clubbing for the past thirty days? But this sounds a little peculiar to my ear. In casual setting, the
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