Content tagged with "perfect"

The past simple is used to refer to a point in the past at which another event was in progress, had been completed or had been going on for some time. The past simple thus serves as a time marker in subordinate time clauses within complex sentences, where the main clause is in the past continuous, past perfect or past perfect continuous tense:

The present perfect continuous is used to express repeated or habitual actions happening in an incomplete period of time. A time expression is usually necessary:

She has been getting up at 6 for the last two weeks.
I've been coughing all day.

The present perfect tense is used for past events when the exact time is not mentioned either because it is not known or it is not important. The emphasis is on the fact that the events happened before the time of speaking: