Present Perfect Continuous

Question

How can we tell if the action expressed by a verb in the Present Perfect Continuous has stopped or is still going on? I've been painting my kitchen.Thank you!

Clive · Accepted Answer

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Clive

CalifJim · Answer

amethystKHow can we tell if the action expressed by a verb in the Present Perfect Continuous has stopped or is still going on? I've been painting my kitchen.

The perfect tenses do not focus on that information. Many actions take place as episodes of action with intermittent pauses. It is impossible to tell from the use of a perfect tense whether the speaker is in action or in a pause between episodes of the same action — unless the speaker is away from the action when he speaks, of course.

In the case of your painting example, if you hear that sentence at a party, far from the kitchen in question, you know that the speaker, i.e., the painter, is not actually painting the kitchen at the time he says this. However, you can easily surmise that the painting is not finished and that the painter will resume his work when it becomes convenient to do so. If he were actually finished, he would say "I've painted my kitchen" or "I painted my kitchen".

CJ

AmethystK · Answer

Thanks for your answers.

I am actually a bit confused about the Present Perfect Continuous, as grammar books say that it is also used to express an action which started and finished in the past and lasted for some time.

'The result of the action is visible in the present. Example: He is soaking wet. He has been walking in the rain. (He is no longer walking in the rain. He has just stopped and we can see that his clothes are wet.)'

I was wondering if the same thing can be said about the sentence I've been painting my kitchen (depending on the context of course). For example, if this person has just finished painting their kitchen, and the result is visible in the present because they have paint all over their clothes or the kitchen is a mess.

Present Perfect Continuous

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