# FR: present perfect continuous



## garotopunkrock

Hello everyone.
I really don't how to translate the Present Perfect Continuous Tense of english to french... I need a hand...
"He has been doing a nice work untill today"...


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## victoria1

Il a fait un travail remarquable jusqu'aujourd'hui.


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## garotopunkrock

Mon bleu! J'ai pensé que c'était plus difficile!
bon, ok..
Thank you very very much, Victoria!!!


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## LV4-26

In most cases, the continuous form is not translated.
In some specific cases, you can use "_être en train de".
_ 
As for the present perfect, it is sometimes translated to the passé composé (its equivalent on a purely syntactic level, i.e. it's built in the same way) and sometimes to the présent.

In your sentence I would say
_Il a fait du bon travail jusqu'à aujourd'hui. _(passé composé).


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## Thomas1

Est-ce que l'on peut employer ici l'imparfait ?

_Il faisait du bon travail jusqu'à aujourd'hui._

Merci d'avance,
Thomas


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## victoria1

Thomas, *il faisait du bon travail jusqu'aujourd'hui* would imply now he is no longer doing a good job.


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## Thomas1

victoria1 said:


> Thomas, *il faisait du bon travail jusqu'aujourd'hui* would imply now he is no longer doing a good job.


Thank you. 

Doesn't the original sentence imply the same by any chance?
"He has been doing a nice work untill today"... 

__________|||||___________
a nice work today no nice work anymore


Tom


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## Areyou Crazy

A correction and a question

he has been doing a nice work

doing a nice job 

doing nice work 

The present perfect continuous is used for actions continuing up to the present moment; usually the action is not finished (but sometimes it is!)

my question:
*il fait un travail remarquable jusqu'à present*
is that possible? (if the action continues)

Because If he does not do a good job today
we would use in English
He was doing a good job until today (he no longer does a good job)


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## Thomas1

Areyou Crazy said:


> A correction and a question
> 
> he has been doing a nice work
> 
> doing a nice job
> 
> doing nice work
> 
> The present perfect continuous is used for actions continuing up to the present moment; usually the action is not finished (but sometimes it is!)
> 
> my question:
> *il fait un travail remarquable jusqu'à present*
> is that possible? (if the action continues)
> 
> Because If he does not do a good job today
> we would use in English
> He was doing a good job until today (he no longer does a good job)


Thanks for clarrification. 

So can the English sentence:
_He's been doing a nice job until today._
imply that he 
a doesn't do it anymore (perhaps he's been doing it today too, but in the afternoon he botched something up )
b still does it
c can imply both


Tom


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## victoria1

Thomas1 said:


> Thank you.
> 
> Doesn't the original sentence imply the same by any chance?
> "He has been doing a nice work untill today"...
> 
> __________|||||___________
> a nice work today no nice work anymore
> 
> 
> Tom



YES AND NO.
He has been doing a nice work until today and he needs to be promoted. Here it means that his work continues to be great!
He has been doing a nice work until today and I can't explain his recent sloppiness means he is no longer working very well.
It's all to do with the context Thomas.


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## antiphon

Je veux simplement dire que j'ai trouvé cet fil utile et je suis d'accord avec la dernière interprétation!


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## lefrancophile

I've heard French speakers in say in English things along the lines of:

"I wait since 3 hours" which would be
"J'attends depuis trois heures" which would be
"I've been waiting..." which is the present perfect continuous, no?

So, can't the present tense in French be used for the present perfect continuous when it's used in conjunction with something like "depuis" etc?


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## antiphon

Yes, absolutely - there is no present perfect continuous in French, so most often the present is used, as LV4-26 said (more or less) in post 4.

In the same way a not-so-competent native French speaker might translate the sentence given in French with 'he does a good work until today'!  I love 'mistakes' like this as they remind me of the grammar of the speaker's native language - which is most useful to me.


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## garotopunkrock

antiphon said:


> Yes, absolutely - there is no present perfect continuous in French, so most often the present is used, as LV4-26 said (more or less) in post 4.
> 
> In the same way a not-so-competent native French speaker might translate the sentence given in French with 'he does a good work until today'!  I love 'mistakes' like this as they remind me of the grammar of the speaker's native language - which is most useful to me.



Considering what you've just said, I'm one of yours. Great comment!

Good-bye


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## antiphon

Ce n'est pas mal !  J'acueille avec la plus grande chaleur tous qui essaient parler une langue étrangère !

étreintes


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## sweety2441

Moi, je dirais ceci:

"Il a fait du bon travail jusqu'à aujourd'hui."

Je suis tout à fait d'accord avec LV4-26.


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## LV4-26

Juste pour ajouter que
Il a fait du bon travail jusqu'à aujourd'hui ou
Il a fait un travail remarquable jusqu'aujourd'hui

impliquent que on ne l'a pas (encore) vu en faire du mauvais.

Si l'on voulait insister sur le fait que ce n'est plus le cas, on emploierait probablement le plus-que-parfait

Il avait fait du bon travail jusqu'à aujourd'hui
ou l'imparfait
Il faisait du bon travail jusqu'à aujourd'hui.

Je n'ai vraiment pas de préférence pour l'un ou l'autre et ne saurais trop dire ce qui les sépare,  excepté que l'imparfait me paraît plus "continuous" que le plus-que-parfait, dans ce cas.


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## WordRef1

pour éclairement, selon moi ...
_He has been doing a nice job until today._
forcément veut dire que ...
_He is no longer doing a nice job._ If I wanted to say until the present and we don't know about the future, I would say ...
He has been doing a nice job up to now.
The tone of voice (if spoken) would also help to indicate and/or more context of course, which of the two it is. But, if someone said the first to me, I would ask, what happened today (to change the situation)?
But it would indeed be more natural to hear "He was doing a nice job until today." in that case. So ...
1. "He was doing a nice job until today." (and is no longer doing a nice job)
2. "He has been doing a nice job up to now." (everything is fine)
3. "He does good work." (One has had experience with him and is confident that the good work will continue.)


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## antiphon

LV4-26 said:


> Juste pour ajouter que
> Si l'on voulait insister sur le fait que ce n'est plus le cas, on emploierait probablement le plus-que-parfait
> 
> Il avait fait du bon travail jusqu'à aujourd'hui
> ou l'imparfait
> Il faisait du bon travail jusqu'à aujourd'hui.


Oui, c'est le même cas en Anglais : on traduirait ces temps comme "he had been doing a good job (doing good work) until today" et "he was doing a good job until today".


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## Nurgle

LV4-26 said:


> Si l'on voulait insister sur le fait que ce n'est plus le cas, on emploierait probablement le plus-que-parfait
> 
> Il avait fait du bon travail jusqu'à aujourd'hui
> ou l'imparfait
> Il faisait du bon travail jusqu'à aujourd'hui.
> 
> Je n'ai vraiment pas de préférence pour l'un ou l'autre et ne saurais trop dire ce qui les sépare, excepté que l'imparfait me paraît plus "continuous" que le plus-que-parfait, dans ce cas.


 
Ce qui les sépare c'est que dans un français soigné, la première version est fausse. On devrait avoir :
"Il faisait du bon travail jusqu'à aujourd'hui"
(la date limite est dans le présent, donc on parle bien à l'imparfait)

Et si dans un mois j'en reparle, je dirai :
"Il avait fait du bon travail jusqu'à ce moment là"
(la date limite est dans le passé, on parle d'un événement du passé situé encore avant, donc au plus-que-parfait)

Mais le mélange entre les deux (plus-que-parfait + jusqu'à + évènement présent) est normalement impossible. Cela dit, tous nos journalistes faisant la faute depuis déjà de nombreuses années, c'est devenu presque acceptable.


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## Azly99

Hello,

I have a lot of trouble to translate present perfect continuous sentences in French.
I’ve never known if I have to translate in «présent» or «passé composé». I know that it doesn’t exist in French and I should avoid to translate in my native language but I still need to.
So I switch between both tenses according to the kind of sentence or the context but I haven’t found something concrete to do the distinction.

For instance:
- I have been learning English for 4 years.
« j’apprends l’anglais depuis 4 ans »
Or « J’ai appris l’anglais depuis 4 ans »

- I have been cleaning my house.
«Je fait le ménage dans ma maison»
Or«J’ai fait le ménage dans ma maison»

In this both cases, which ones would you choose?


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## Locape

Pour ma part, je dirais 'I'm cleaning my house' = Je fais le ménage dans ma maison.
'I have been cleaning my house' = J'ai fait le ménage dans ma maison.

Contrairement à cet exemple où l'action est finie, la première phrase ne veut pas dire à mon sens qu'on a fini d'apprendre, donc je dirais 'J'apprends l'anglais depuis 4 ans' (et non le sens de 'J'ai appris l'anglais pendant 4 ans'), ou 'cela fait 4 ans que j'apprends l'anglais'.


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## Juan Moretime

Azly99 said:


> - I have been learning English for 4 years.
> « j’apprends l’anglais depuis 4 ans »
> Or « J’ai appris l’anglais depuis 4 ans »


Ça fait 4 ans que j'apprends l'anglais
Volilá cinq ans que...
Il y a cinq ans que...


Azly99 said:


> - I have been cleaning my house. (the work is still ongoing)
> «Je fait le ménage dans ma maison»
> Or«J’ai fait le ménage dans ma maison» (the work is completed)



Note that _Je fais_ can have several different translations, depending on context.

_I do_, _I am doing_, _I have done_, and _I have been doing _are all possible.


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## Juan Moretime

garotopunkrock said:


> He has been doing a nice work untill today


He has been doing a good job _*up to now*_. (He continues to do good work).
He has been doing a good job _*until now*_. (He did not do a good job today).


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