Difference between Present Continuous and Present Perfect Continuous

Present Continuous vs Present Perfect Continuous

Present Continuous and Present Perfect Continuous are two grammatical terms used in English grammar. They have to be understood and used with difference. This is because of the fact that they differ from each other to some extent.

Present continuous is a tense form that denotes the action that is still going on.

Look at the two sentences,

1. He is eating his food.

2. Angela is running fast.

In both the sentences you can see that the two actions described are still going on at the time of speaking. ‘he is eating his food’ only means that ‘at this time he is eating his food’, and similarly ‘Angela is running fast’ only means that ‘Angela at the moment is running fast.

On the other hand, present perfect continuous is a tense form that indicates the action that was taking place some time ago. Look at the sentences,

1. I have been telling Francis to do this job.

2. Angela has been finding fault with him.

In both the sentences you can see that the terms ‘have been telling’ and ‘has been finding’ indicate the actions that were taking place some time ago, but definitely not now. This is the primary difference between present continuous and present perfect continuous tenses. In other words, it can be said that present perfect continuous tense may be confused with simple past tense.

On the other hand, present continuous tense is used when somebody describes an event or narrates something connected with an event or a happening. On the other hand present perfect continuous tense is normally used in short story writing and novel writing for that matter. This is because of the fact that the present perfect continuous tense is used more in writing rather than in speaking.