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My question is "Can we use present perfect tense for that an action which started in past and is still in progress"? if yes than how?

Mark
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Noraiz khan
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    Welcome to ELL! As for your question, do you mean specifically only the simple present perfect, or only the present perfect progressive, or both? – Damkerng T. Jun 12 '14 at 10:29

2 Answers2

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Yes, you can use a present perfect construction for an action which started in the past and is still in progress:

I have lived in St. Louis for almost forty years.
I have answered questions on ELL since January, 2013.

This is called a continuative (or universal) perfect.

Note, however, that perfect constructions are inherently ambiguous. “I have lived in St. Louis”, for instance, may be understood in either the continuative sense or in an existential (or experiential) sense, which signifies that the prior action took place at least once:

CONTINUATIVE: I have lived in St. Louis since 1976, and am living there still.
EXISTENTIAL: I have lived in St. Louis—I worked there in the 1990s—so I am familiar with the major streets.

There is, consequently, a tendency in Present-day English to ‘mark’ the continuative use with a present perfect progressive:

I have been living in St. Louis since 1976.

But this is not required. Usually the context will make clear what sense you intend a perfect to bear.

There is a great deal more about the use of perfect constructions at What is the perfect, and how should I use it?, especially §§ 3.1 Grammatical meaning, 3.2 Pragmatic meaning and 4. When and how should I use the perfect?.

Community
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StoneyB on hiatus
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No, afaik present perfect tense is always used for when an action started in the past and ended in the past.

If an action started in the past and is still going in you should use Future Perfect Tense (will have/going to have + past participle) which is quite similar to what you were looking for.

example: "I am not going to have finished this answer by 4pm." (source)

pLoory
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    There are two errors in this. 1) The perfect is used for actions which continue into the present - "I have been living here for forty years." 2) In your example, the verb finish does not signify an action which is going on in the present but a future event which will bring a present action (presumably "answering") to an end. – StoneyB on hiatus Jun 12 '14 at 10:46
  • Oh gosh I'm so sorry, I only tried to help. I shouldn't answer then as native german. I regret! Won't happen again :( – pLoory Jun 12 '14 at 11:10
  • Not a problem - we all make mistakes from time to time. This is in fact an important distinction between English and German: German Perfekt is what linguists call perfective, whereas English Perfect is not. This comes about, I think, because we have a regular imperfective, was VERBing; that leaves the simple past (preterite) VERBed free to take the perfective role, whereas your language uses the Präteritum mostly as an imperfective and needs the Perfekt to play the perfective role. – StoneyB on hiatus Jun 12 '14 at 11:18
  • You are totally right, this might be the point. Thanks for correcting me and sorry again. How can I give you a vote for "useful comment"? You earn it ;) – pLoory Jun 12 '14 at 11:25