As is often the case, this will work better if you are set for html, color and 
graphics, by whatever name.
 
Barron's Master the Basics - English
                                    by Jean Yates, Northern Virginia Community 
College.
 
#9.3 Present Perfect Tense
 
This section starts with an inadequate definition but gives pretty good examples 
until ...
 
(f) to indicate that an action happened a very short time ago, use just or 
finally.
 
Pattern:  have + just     + past participle
              have + finally + past participle
 
<Have> Did they arrive<d> yet?   Yes they <have> did. They <have> just arrived.
What <has> happened?               The president <has> just left.
                                                     Our team <has> just won the 
tournament.
                                                     We <have> finally finished.
 
#9.4  Past Perfect Progressive Tense has similar problems. 
 
What had you been doing before you started to work? I had been studying for five 
years.
 
Nonsense. What did you do before you started to work? I studied for five 
years.   
 
Where had she been living before she bought this house? She had been living in 
an apartment for a long time.
 
Nonsense. Where did she live before she bought this house? She lived in an 
apartment for a long time.
 
Challenge. It is written that there is no such thing as a correct (i.e., 
reasonable) past perfect progressive. I challenge you to find one. I have only 
ever seen one that seemed to make sense but I cannot now find it. I challenge 
any and all to put one forth, or even make one up. I'll bet you can't do it.
 
Let's agree, ya wanna, that if no one can either find or create a reasonable 
example of the "past perfect progressive", we'll (a) not teach it and (b) do our 
best to get it eliminated from grammar texts.*
 
.brad.20dec10. 
 
*Note 'texts'. Online grammar sites are hopeless. They're so screwed up they 
will likely never be unscrewed. They are an embarrassment to the English 
Language.


      

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