Learn English – Meaning of a sentence using the perfect continuous tense

present-perfect

a. They have been throwing papers.

b. They have been throwing papers since the teacher left.

Does the sentence (a) have the same meaning as sentence (b), even though the period of time is not stated in sentence (a)? Or is it that sentence (a) can only mean that they threw the paper and have stopped now?

Best Answer

They basically mean the same thing, but:

A- Both could mean that the action is finished at the time of utterance's production.

Present Perfect Continuous has 2 uses:

  1. The action started in the past and has stopped recently or just stopped and the results are visible now. (You're late! What have you been doing?)
  2. The action started in the past and is continuing now. (We've been working a lot. It's time to stop for a cup of tea.)

B- Only the second one says when the action started being explicit about it.

(The examples provided are taken from my personal grammar, so you know they're correct.)

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