Transcript of Lesson 4.4 - The Perfect-Progressive Aspect

Lesson 4.4 - The Perfect-Progressive Aspect.

As you can probably guess, 'the Perfect-Progressive Aspect' is a combination of both 'the Perfect Aspect' and 'the Progressive Aspect'.

'The Perfect-Progressive Aspect' is used in order to express two things.

1. Something happened at an earlier period of time and has an effect on a later period of time - The Perfect Aspect. And,

2. The action state or event that happened earlier took place over that period of time, it was ongoing, as opposed to a single point in time.

We can use 'the Perfect-Progressive Aspect' in the past, present, and future tenses.

For example:.

"I have been travelling in Victoria." - The Present Perfect-Progressive.

"I had been travelling in Victoria." - The Past Perfect-Progressive. And,

"I will have been travelling in Victoria." - The Future Perfect-Progressive.

And we can also use 'the Perfect-Progressive Aspect' with modal verbs.

For example:.

"I would have been travelling in Victoria."

"I should have been travelling in Victoria."

"I could have been travelling in Victoria."

"I might have been travelling in Victoria." etc.

To form 'the Perfect-Progressive Aspect, we simply use some form of the verb 'to have', then 'the Past Participle of the verb "to be"', we use 'been', and then 'the Present Participle of a verb', like "travelling".

See the notes in this lesson for the tables on how to form 'the Perfect Progressive Aspect' in the different tenses.

Let's go through some examples.

"I've been calling dad all day, but he won't answer his phone." - The Present Perfect-Progressive.

So, in this example, I use 'the Progressive Aspect' to show the ongoing action of 'me calling my dad', and I used 'the Perfect Aspect' to show that the action began in the past and is connected with the present.

That is, it's still happening. I'm still calling him, trying to get him to answer, but he hasn't picked up the phone yet.

"I've been calling Dad all day, but he won't answer his phone."

"I had been waiting outside when it began to rain." - Past Perfect-Progressive.

So, in this example, both events happened in the past, one before the other.

'The Progressive Aspect' shows the action of 'me waiting', this is the first period of time and that it was ongoing, and 'the Perfect Aspect' links this action to the later point in time 'when it began to rain'.

So, "I had been waiting outside...". That was happening first. It was ongoing. "...when it began to rain.". When this later event happened. And those two are linked.

"We will have been sitting here for a long time by the time the train finally arrives." - Future Perfect-Progressive.

In this example, both events are happening in the future, but one before the other.

'The Progressive Aspect' is used to show that the first event is ongoing, 'us sitting here waiting', and that it will still be occurring and is thus connected to the later point in time in the future 'when the train finally arrives'. And that's 'the Perfect Aspect'.

So, "We will have been sitting here for a long time by the time the train finally arrives."

"Pete would have been helping Kel if she hadn't told him to go home." - Conditional Perfect-Progressive.

So in this example, we're using a conditional clause.

'The Progressive Aspect' here is the ongoing action of 'Pete helping Kel', and it's either now or in the near past.

And this thing isn't taking place as a result of consequences of an earlier event, 'Kel telling Pete to go home'.

So, "Pete would have been helping Kel earlier, but Kel had told him to go home."

So, to sum up the Perfect-Progressive Aspect.

It's formed with any form of the verb 'to have' then 'the Past Participle of to be', 'been', and then 'the Present Participle of a verb', like, "travelling", "watching".

It's used to indicate a connection between two periods of time.

The first period in time, including an ongoing action state or event, and that it is linked to and affects the second later period of time.

'The Perfect-Progressive Aspect' can be combined with the present, past, and future tenses to express itself at different times.

And it can also be used with the different modal verbs like would, should, could, might, etc.

So, basically, if you want to talk about something that is taking place over a period of time, i.e. it's ongoing, 'the Progressive', and it's happening earlier than another period in time that it's having an effect on later on, then you use 'The Perfect-Progressive Aspect'.