How long have you been driving your car?Signal wordsPresent Perfect Present Perfect ContinuousHow many times...timesJust recentlyLatelyAlreadybefore How longSinceForMeaning Present perfect Present perfect ProgressiveThe present perfect tells us about the past and the present. When we use it, we look back from the present. We express an action in a period preceding the present. The time period can be very long. The Present Perfect Progressive expresses an action over a period of time leading up to the present. The action may continue in the present or have recently ended. We use the present perfect to say how much or how often Jean has traveled to five countries this year. Jean has been traveling all this year. In the continuous we can use verbs such as to be, to have, to hate, to like, to love, to need, to prefer, to seem, to understand, etc. These are called nonprogressive verbs. NOTE: How long have you had that cold? How long have you had this cold?NOT: I've been here since yesterdayI've been here since yesterdayIn Present Perfect we used to express very long immutable situations. Maria has been there for hours. This church has been in this place since 400