Present Perfect Continuous and Past Perfect Continuous

[vil]

Dear teachers,

Would you be kind enough to share with me your opinion concerning the following sentences?

1.I have been waiting for you a whole hour.
2.I have been looking for you the whole afternoon, dona Lucia.
3.Stop playing ches! You have been playing for an hour. It’s high time for you to turn to chemistry.
4.Oh, my goodness! I have been smoking for at least forty years.
5. He had been scraping for years to buy a car.
6.I had been smoking at least forty years, when I decided to give up smoking.
7.I had been waiting for you a whole hour when I decided that I could wait no longer. I regret the necessity of going away, it is not my fault.

Thank you for your efforts.

Regards,

V

[sarat_106]

Dear teachers,

Would you be kind enough to share with me your opinion concerning the following sentences?

1.I have been waiting for you a whole hour. The Present Perfect Continuous is used here to show that the waiting action started in the past is continueing up till now
2.I have been looking for you the whole afternoon, dear Lucia. Here the looking for action stared in the past may or may not be continuing now.
3.Stop playing ches! You have been playing for an hour. It’s high time for you to turn to chemistry. Here the playing action started in the past is conrinuing upto now and may continue to future.
4.Oh, my goodness! I have been smoking for at least forty years. same as above
5. He had been scraping for years to buy a car. same as above
6.I had been smoking at least forty years, when I decided to give up smoking. The past ferferfect continuous is used to show that the smoking action started in the past and continued until the time in the past you decided to give up
7.I had been waiting for you a whole hour when I decided that I could wait no longer. I regret the necessity of going away, it is not my fault. Here use of the the past perfect continuous before another action is is a good example to show cause and effect.

Thank you for your efforts.

Regards,

V

SKP