Present perfect vs. Present Pefect Progressive

[Nicholas]

Hi teachers,

I have two sentences I misunderstand.

1. He has been drinking too much lately. (Can i use present perfect)?)

2. She has read 20 pages so far. (Can i use present perfect progressive?)

Oh, anyway, are these two sentences correct? I have been bothered too much if they are correct sentences. At the same time, could you give some light on the differences between present perfect and present perfect progressive?

3. I'd like to come to dinner, but...........football so i need to have a bath and wash my hair before I come out again. Shall I meet you in two hours at your place?
Answers: a. I've played b. I've been playing..

I chose 'a' but it was wrong...is it possible if we can use 'both'?

Thank you.
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Nicholas

[Alan]

Hi Nicholas,

The present perfect simple refers to the past but without saying when the action actually took place. In this sentence: 'I read twenty pages last night' we use the past simple because we know exactly when the action was completed. In this sentence: 'I have read twenty pages (so far)' indicates that 20 pages were read from some indefinite time in the past up till now. You would not use the continuous form here because the reading has now stopped. In your first sentence: 'He has been drinking too much lately' the suggestion is that he is continuing to do so. 'He has drunk too much lately' would mean that he isn't continuing to do so as I speak.

In your third sentence I would suggest the continuous form because the inference is that although he isn't actually playing football as he speaks, he is really saying: I'd very much like to come to dinner but as you can see I'm rather dirty and muddy at the moment because I have been playing football.

I always refer to the present perfect continuous as the 'umbrella' tense because it covers three times - the past , the present and it points towards the future.

I hope this brief description is of some use.

Alan
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English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story Not Really

[Alan]

Hi Nicholas,

It's just occurred to me that you might like to read some material I've written for the site on continuous verb forms.

Alan
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English as a Foreign Language
You can read my EFL story A day in the life of a flat hunter