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29
usually specified.
I’ve been writing since morning, and so I’ll soon stop.
They’ve been living here since 1970. Now they are going to move to N.
It has been raining ever since midnight, and it is still drizzling.
She’s a fourth year student, so she’s been learning English for at least 3 years already.
All these forms denoting actions continuing into the present (the so-called present perfect continuous
inclusive) are translated into Russian by the present tense, imperfective (in the sentences above: пишу, живут,
дождь идет, учит).
2. Actions in progress which begin in the past and continue up to the moment of speaking or till just
before it. It is the present perfect continuous exclusive.
Oh, here you are at last! I’ve been waiting for you all day!
It has been snowing since morning, but now it has stopped.
You look so sad. Have you been crying?
It has been raining for at least two hours, but now the wind has driven the clouds away.
3. Actions in progress that both begin and end at some indeterminate time before the moment of
speaking, though connected with it through their importance for the present.
My brother has been using my bicycle and has got the tyre punctured.
I have been thinking over your offer, but still can’t tell you anything definite.
I hear she has been calling on you again?
The forms denoting actions that are over by the moment of speaking (the so-called present perfect
continuous exclusive) are translated into Russian by means of the past tense, imperfective (in the sentences in
items 2 and 3 they are: ждал, снег шел, плакала, дождь шел, катался, обдумывал, приходила).
4. Future actions in progress before a certain moment in the future (in subordinate adverbial clauses of
time and condition).
He will get accustomed to the surroundings after he has been staying here for a week or two.
§ 28. As is seen from above, the present perfect continuous cannot be used to denote a succession of actions
and therefore cannot be used to describe the development of events. If two actions denoted by the present
perfect continuous happen to come together it only means that they are simultaneous and are usually performed
by two different persons:
I have been living here for two months while they have been travelling all over Europe. Now they are
coming back, and I’ll soon move back to my own place.
Past tenses
§ 29. All the past tenses (the past indefinite, the past continuous, the past perfect, the past perfect
continuous) refer the actions they denote to the past. The difference between them lies in the way they represent
the I categories of aspect and perfect.
Owing to their past time reference all of them are used both in the written language in narrative and
description, and in conversation, especially the past indefinite.
The past indefinite
(The simple past)
§ 30. Formation. The affirmative forms of the past indefinite are synthetic, the interrogative, negative and