I. INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW

1. The Perfect and Perfect Continuous Tenses Compared

There are some things that are the same about the Perfect Tense and the Perfect Continuous Tense. They can both be used to express a time relationship.

The main difference between the ordinary Perfect Tense and the Perfect Continuous Tense is that, with the perfect continuous tense, there is the expectation that the action will continue past the current time that the action is reported. This will be explained later in greater detail.

The other difference is that while the Perfect Tense can express a 'cause-effect' connection, the Perfect Continuous Tense is not usually used for a Cause/Effect relationship.