have/had been

This,

because our work is completed

doesn't square with,

so we are going to have a rest soon.

'going to' denotes a future reference, Ms Tan.

What do you think now? Please include your reasoning as it is likely go a long way towards helping sort out any difficulties/confusion that you might be having.

Hi JTT

I now think it should be 'have been' since they have not completed their work. The word 'since' is used to refer to something that is till on-going. Am I correct?

Thanks in advance.

I now think it should be 'have been' since they have not completed their work. The word 'since' is used to refer to something that is till on-going. Am I correct?

I certainly can't say for sure from the available context whether the work is done or not, Ms Tan. But you must remember/consider the present perfect of current relevance/importance and more for BrE, the present perfect of completion. Even actions that are finished can sometimes be described with the present perfect.

Thanks, JTT.

We have/had been working hard since this morning, so we are going to have a rest soon.

You're welcome, Ms Tan.

I read right over the fact that it's the present perfect continuous. This is often used when there is no end in sight for the work, eg. year one of a ten year dam project, an office where the work never stops, etc.

We have been working hard since this morning, so we are going to have a rest soon.

To use the past perfect, you'd need a scenario similar to this:

Now 3PM: We had been working hard since this morning, but the drill rig broke down an hour ago, [so after we put the tools and stuff away] we are going to have a rest soon.

Thanks for the detailed explanation, JTT.

surely, the answer is have been working.

present perfect continuous is used to imply that there was an action in the past and continuing up to now. and the word "since" is your clue. another function of this tense is to know the duration of the action.

I'm running up to now. I've been running for 4 hours.
I'm running up to now. I've been running since 4am.