PRESENT PERFECT (meaning). Finished or Unfinished action
Hello,

I'd like to know if, from the sentences below, you can infer the action is finished or not:

"That woman's been standing out there for ten minutes."
"She 's stand out there since 9am".
"I've been living in my sister's house since February".
"I've lived in my sister's for 2 weeks.
"I've studied English for 10 years".

In all this cases, can I infer that the action isn't unfinished? If not, in which ones?

I know the progressive Present perfect is mainly used for SHORTER TEMPORARY situations, and the Simple Present Perfect for LONGER or permanent situations, and that sometimes either can be used (It's been rainning all week; it's rainned all week!), so it depends on the speaker's point of view. But, do you think the use of the PRESENT PERFECT implies that the action is unfinished?
If I want to say: "He trabajado en esta empresa hasta hoy", I worked in this company until today..., Is the use of the tense correct? Or it is better to say "I've worked in this company until today"?

Question

PRESENT PERFECT (meaning). Finished or Unfinished action
Hello,

I'd like to know if, from the sentences below, you can infer the action is finished or not:

"That woman's been standing out there for ten minutes."
"She 's stand out there since 9am".
"I've been living in my sister's house since February".
"I've lived in my sister's for 2 weeks.
"I've studied English for 10 years".

In all this cases, can I infer that the action isn't unfinished? If not, in which ones?

I know  the progressive Present perfect is mainly used for SHORTER TEMPORARY situations, and the Simple Present Perfect for LONGER or permanent situations, and that sometimes either can be used (It's been rainning all week; it's rainned all week!), so it depends on the speaker's point of view. But, do you think the use of the PRESENT PERFECT implies that the action is unfinished?
If I want to say: "He trabajado en esta empresa hasta hoy", I worked in this company until today..., Is the use of the tense correct? Or it is  better to say "I've worked in this company until today"?

Answer

Present Perfect Progressive (e.g. "The woman's been standing out there...") is mainly used for unfinished events, which began in the past and are presumably continuing in the present.
But the most important difference between the simple and progressive aspects of Present Perfect is that, while the former is used for resultative actions, the latter is used for durative actions.
Example of a resultative action: I have read ten pages since morning. (The action is resultative because the emphasis is on the result of the action: 10 pages read since morning).
Example of a durative action: I have been reading all day. (The action is durative because the emphasis is on the duration of the action: having read all day).
For more details on this, I suggest you read "A Practical English Grammar" by A. J. Thomson and Agnes V. Martinet. You will find in it all the nuances of this grammatical matter quite expertly explained.

Answer

Absolutely not! The present perfect has nothing to do with the action being finished or not. It has everything to do with the time frame though. In all your sentences, the time frame is unfinished.

"That woman's been standing out there for ten minutes."
This one's the hardest. You see, the time frame here includes the present moment, and the present moment is always unfinished.
"She 's stood out there since 9am".
Should be obvious.
"I've been living in my sister's house since February".
See what I mean, now?
"I've lived in my sister's for 2 weeks.
The time frame here is not "2 weeks". It is a wider time frame. See the next one.
"I've studied English for 10 years".
This could go on a resume, indicating your skills at English. This sentence describes one of your abilities, so you can see the wider time frame here.

I hope this helps, and I hope I have corrected some wrong notions you have of the present perfect. I know you got them from books, but, hey, whatever.

Answer

Hi Esther,
I've found some links on the Internet which emphasise what I told you in my answer. Please look at them:
http://learnenglish.britishcouncil.org/en/english-grammar/verbs/present-tense/present-perfect
http://www.englishclub.com/grammar/verb-tenses_present-perfect_u.htm
If you want to underline that you are about to leave the company I would say "I worked for this company  until now, but I'm leaving tomorrow". However, it's a 'border-line case".

Answer

Thanks Georg! Your answers is really clarifying!

But, what about "I've worked in this company until today"? If I want to mean that it's my last day at work, it's better to say "I worked in this company until now" or both are possible (so it is "I worked in this company until now")? Or the only solution is "I've been working in this company until now"....

What do you thing?

Thanks a lot!

Answer

Hi Esther,
In all the examples above the actions are UNFINISHED. (The actions started in the Past and last to the Present - Present Perfect.) If the actions were finished, the Past Tense would have been used. The words 'for' and 'since are so-called time indicators which call for the Present Perfect.
The sentence "She 's stand out there since 9am". should be corrected to "She has been standing out there since 9 am" OR "She has stood out there since 9 am".
Kind regards,
   Georg