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Unread Aug 17th, 2020, 04:03 am
susan53 susan53 is offline
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Default Re: Present perfect or present perfect continuous

Sorry but it's just not true that the present perfect simple is confined to state verbs with for/since. It can be used with any verb. here are some more examples.

I've written her three emails since Tuesday, but she hasn't replied.
I've fallen over twice since Sunday.
I've walked the dogs for David for three weeks, since he broke his leg.
I haven't played the piano for twenty years
I haven't weeded my garden since July.
He hasn't cleaned the living room for a month.
I haven't opened my grammar book since I realised the rules were all wrong!


These are all "actions", not states - but notice that they are individual actions, not on-going actions. So eg :

I've played tennis for three years means I started twenty years ago and I've played regularly since then. However, I've been playing tennis for three hours means it was a continuous action which started three hours ago and continued without interruption up to the present moment.

I think this is probably the use that your book is referring to.
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