How long have you been studying English?

Today's lesson is about the Present Perfect continuous. We use it to talk about actions that started in the past and continued to the present. It is formed using:

has/have + been + present participle.

I have been walking all day.

He has been talking non-stop for 2 hours!


So you'll often hear it in a question like:


A: How long have you been living in Japan?

B: I have been living here for about 5 years.

The pronounciation in casual English is:

A: How long've you been living in Japan?

B: I've been living in Japan for about 5 years.

So 've sounds like OF.

I have -----> I've = Eye-of

long have ------> long've = long-of

BE Careful!

We can also use the present perfect which is:

has/have + past participle

I've lived in Japan for about 5 years.

These have about the same meaning. But to me, have been living seems more temporary whereas have lived seems more permanent-I don't have any plans to leave.

So, onto today's question:

A: How long've you guys been studying English?

B: I've been studying it OFF AND ON for 10 years.

C: I've been studying it SERIOUSLY for about 6 months.

Let's look at these two useful expressions:

OFF AND ON means you start something and then stop, then start again, etc.

They've been dating OFF AND ON for 3 years.

Meaning they date, they break up, they get back together, break up, date, etc.

SERIOUSLY means you are focusing on it, it's like 真面目に (まじめに ) in Japanese.

I've been thinking about that problem seriously and I think I have a solution.

Have a nice day,

Phil