How To Use “Have Been” “Has Been” “Had

Been”?
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Contents hide
1 Usage of “Have Been & Has Been”
2 Usage of “Had Been”
3 Difference between ‘Have been’ – ‘Had been’
4 Have Been, Has Been, Had Been Quiz
4.1 Where were you? We ____ waiting for you since 10 o'clock.
4.2 They ____ living in Boston until they moved out in 1984.
4.3 She ____ writing this answer for 20 minutes.
4.4 When I went home, she ____ cooking for 5 hours
4.5 Magicians ____ highly regarded in medieval times.
4.6 She _____ to Istanbul many times.
What is the difference between “have been, has been and had been”?
Are you struggling to use the correct form when you’re speaking or writing in English? In this lesson we’ll learn about the
difference between have, has and had been.
Remember the best way to be learning grammar is using it! When you make practice, you will able to develop better
understanding the use of each grammatical structure and apply this to your everyday life when you are speaking or writing
in English.
Usage of “Have Been & Has Been”
‘Has been’ and ‘have been’ suggest an action that started in the past, but continues in the present.
When we are talking about the present:
If the subject of a sentence is I – You – We – They or a plural noun (cars, birds, children) we use ‘have been‘.
Examples:
☛A total of five cars have been stolen from the city center.
☛Birds have been following me all day long.
☛Children have been playing since morning. (still playing)
If the subject of the sentence is He – She – It or a singular noun (car, bird, child) we use ‘has been‘.
Examples:
☛My car has been stolen from the city center.
☛This bird has been following me all day long.
☛A child has been playing since morning.
Usage of “Had Been”
When we are talking about the past: for any subject (I, You, He, She,It, We, They) we use ‘had been‘.
“Had been,”, suggests an action that both began and ended in the past.
We use the past perfect continuous to indicate that something started in the past and continued up until another time in
the past.
To show time reference “for” and “since” are used and it describes when the action started and how long it continued in the
past.
“For ten minutes”, “for five weeks”, “for two months” are durations which can be used with the past perfect continuous.
Examples:
☛I had been reading articles on English language for three hours.
☛How long had you been studying English before you moved to London?
☛I had been shopping with my wife in the market since morning.
☛She had been shopping in that bazaar before you came home.
☛Children had been playing baseball in that field before it started to rain. (not anymore)
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Difference between ‘Have been’ – ‘Had been’
Present perfect ‘have/has been ‘ is used when describing an action completedin the recent past and still assumes importance
in the present.
We use ‘had been’ when you describe something that happened in the pastbefore something else in the past. Also an action
that had happened in the past and does not reflect any continuation to the present time.
Example: By 500 AD, the Roman Empire had been defeated.
Have Been, Has Been, Had Been Quiz
Where were you? We ____ waiting for you since 10 o'clock.
have been
has been
had been
They ____ living in Boston until they moved out in 1984.
have been
has been
had been
She ____ writing this answer for 20 minutes.
have been
has been
had been
When I went home, she ____ cooking for 5 hours
have been
has been
had been
Magicians ____ highly regarded in medieval times.
have been
has been
had been
She _____ to Istanbul many times.
have been
has been
had been
english tenses, present perfect tense