Using Perfect and Continuous Verb Forms in English

Understanding Tense and Aspect in English

To use English verbs correctly, you need to understand both tense and aspect.

Tense marks past, present and future time. Closely linked to tense is the concept of aspect, which adds a further time perspective. Aspect reflects the way in which the action of a verb is viewed with respect to time, answering questions such as: ‘Is the event or state completed or still in progress?’.

There are two forms of aspect in English, the perfect aspect and the progressive aspect (sometimes called the continuous aspect). The perfect aspect usually describes events or states which occur or begin during a previous period of time. The progressive aspect describes events or states which are in progress or continuing.

“I have read your letter.” uses the “present perfect” verb form, made with the present form, “have” + past participle, “read”.
“Present” shows the time and “Perfect” shows the aspect (completed).
There is a connection between something that happened in the past and the present time.

“I had read your letter.” uses the “past perfect” verb form, made with the past form, “had” + past participle.
“Past” shows the time and “Perfect” shows the aspect (completed).
There is a connection between something which happened in the past and another past moment in time.

“I have been reading your letter.” uses the present perfect progressive verb form, made with the present form, “have” + past participle, “been” + progressive form, “reading”
The perfect aspect shows that the action began in the past and the progressive aspect shows that it continued and may still be happening now.

(Adapted from Present perfect aspect – article http://www.onestopenglish.com/grammar/grammar-reference/verbs-and-tenses/present-perfect-aspect-article/152812.article by Kerry G. Maxwell and Lindsay Clandfield)

Check your understanding by trying the exercises:

http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/grammar-exercises/present-perfect
http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/grammar-exercises/past-perfect
http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/grammar-exercises/present-perfect-simple-and-present-perfect-continuous

***Don’t feel frustrated if you can’t always use these verb forms correctly! It takes time to fully understand and master the use of tense and aspect in English.