Time expressions with Perfect continuous

Grammatical terms only confuse me even as an erstwhile writer. However,

One doesn’t say this while he’s painting. Otherwise ”I will be” or “I had been"

Implies that you’d been writing it all your life and only quit yesterday

So, it is correct to say "I had been painting the wall from 3 to 5 p.m today"?

It is if 5 pm has passed. It would also be correct to say, "I painted the wall from 3 to 5 pm today."

And are these ok "I had been painting the wall yesterday from 3 to 5 p.m.", "I have been painting until 7 p.m. today"?

well, why not ''I was painting the wall from 3 to 5 p.m., with emphasis on duration?

mookbark

Yesterday, between 3 and 5pm, I painted a wall. or 'was painting a wall' would sound better.

In a word, yes, with some huge reservations. Native speakers are highly reluctant to use the present perfect [PP] with past time adjuncts/adverbs. Two reasons: the first, the PP contains within, for native English speakers, a very strong sense of up to now. This normally precludes using past time adjuncts/additions.

A: What have you been doing this afternoon?

B: I've been painting the wall.

OR

B: I was painting the wall from 3 to 5.


Another reason is that the PP is used for other pragmatic/semantic reasons, so statements that are more neutral, rather than emphatic/important/current relevancy tend to use simple past or past continuous with these past time phrases/words.

The structure chosen depends on a lot of things and these are more pragmatic/semantic choices than grammatical ones. Of course, certain grammar structures are chosen to illustrate those semantic choices.

The first response, above, in red, could be a reply that was emphatic, possibly as a response to a question that was perceived to contain a tone of suggested laziness/do nothingness.



Since the Past Perfect [PtP] does NOT contain that same up to now meaning, it can be, and often is used with past time adverbial adjuncts.

But again, there is no one simple deciding factor as to when we use either the PP or the PtP.

Please feel free to ask more questions, Smarty, for I've certainly not covered these two difficult structures in full.

Just because it is grammatically okay doesn't mean it is semantically/pragmatically okay.



The PtP also contains a sense of importance/a big event/ a noted time period.

Perhaps this example sounds a bit odd because it's too "focused". Both the PtP and the PP are used to set an overall general pattern and then we further discuss the situation with other structures.

I've been painting all afternoon. I was painting this room from 2 to 3, the bathroom took me 3 hours because of all the little details.

A policeman reporting on a crimes scene: It appears that the deceased had been painting all afternoon. In our paint investigations, relating to drying time, we believe that he was painting the living room from around 1 to 2. Then he started the bedroom and finished it in an hour. Next he did the kitchen, almost finishing it by 5 PM, when an intruder fatally shot him.

We often, though it isn't always required, use the PtP to relate to another period of time. Compare the last sentence above with this one, below.

"I had been painting for two hours before I realized that I had used the wrong color."



Remember the great reluctance of native speakers to mix past time adjuncts with the PP. There are times however, when the current relevance/importance of an issue overrides this reluctance. We often hear this mixing in the news because the media want to make their stories sound current/important.

Tony Blair: [ex- British PM, in an exasperated voice] I've told you this, six months ago.

I will try to locate some news broadcasts wherein you hear this mixing of PP with past time adjuncts.

@JTT,
Thank you! You say
"Native speakers are highly reluctant to use the present perfect [PP] with past time adjuncts/adverbs. Two reasons: the first, the PP contains within, for native English speakers, a very strong sense of up to now. This normally precludes using past time adjuncts/additions."


URL: http://able2know.org/topic/195801-1
By "the Present Perfect [PP] " you mean the present perfect continious, right? so there's not much difference between the present perfect and the present perfect continuous as both structures have a strong sense of up to now?

A fundamental and significant difference is that the Present Perfect refers to one or more discrete times in the past whereas the Present Perfect Continuous refers to specified or unspecified ranges of time.

We use the Present Perfect to say that an action happened at one or more unspecified times before now:

I have seen that movie twenty times.
I think I have met him once before.
There have been many earthquakes in California.
People have traveled to the Moon.
People have not traveled to Mars.
Have you read the book yet?
Nobody has ever climbed that mountain.
A: Has there ever been a war in the United States?
B: Yes, there has been a war in the United States.

We use the Present Perfect Continuous for two things:

(1) With a duration to show that something started in the past and has continued up until now.

They have been talking for the last hour.
She has been working at that company for three years.
What have you been doing for the last 30 minutes?
James has been teaching at the university since June.
We have been waiting here for over two hours!
Why has Nancy not been taking her medicine for the last three days?

(2) Without a duration to show in a more general way that something happened "lately". We often use the words "lately" or "recently" to emphasize this meaning.

Recently, I have been feeling really tired.
She has been watching too much television lately.
Have you been exercising lately?
Mary has been feeling a little depressed.
Lisa has not been practicing her English.
What have you been doing?
Have you been drinking?

I mean both the Present Perfect [PP] and the Present Perfect Continuous [PPC]. They both have that strong sense of "up to now".

However, there is a use where the situation is a clear past tense situation but the PP and the PPC are used to give currency, make the action seem important to now, make it the "hot topic".



Often this is the case, but all examples of the PPC do not have to entail that it "has continued up to now".

I've been painting all afternoon could be a past action that the speaker wants to show is important to now.

Fact: Kofi Annan has quit trying to broker a peace deal in Syria.

A clear past and finished action that uses the PP to illustrate its current relevance.

That can also be found in the PPC;

Kofi Annan has been trying to broker a peace between the rebels and the Syrian government.

==========
Watch a performance at;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnVXIUyshng

A song by Hall & Oates illustrates well the PP of current importance;


She's Gone [= "She has gone" which is a finished action that holds a great deal of importance to now.]

Everybody's high on consolation
Everybody's trying to tell me what's right for me
My daddy tried to bore me with a sermon
but it's plain to see that they can't comfort me
Sorry Charlie for the imposition
I think I've got it, got the strength to carry on
I need a drink and a quick decision
Now it's up to me, ooh what will be

Chorus:
She's Gone Oh I, Oh I'd
better learn how to face it
She's Gone Oh I, Oh I'd
pay the devil to replace her
She's Gone - what went wrong

Up in the morning look in the mirror
I'm worn as her tooth brush hanging in the stand
my face ain't looking any younger
now I can see love's taken her toll on me

In the underlined portion, above, the results of love are still "up to now".

Chorus:
She's Gone Oh I, Oh I'd
better learn how to face it
She's Gone Oh I, Oh I'd
pay the devil to replace her
She's Gone - what went wrong

Think I'll spend eternity in the city
let the carbon and monoxide choke my thoughts away
and pretty bodies help dissolve the memories
but they can never be what she was to me

Chorus:
She's Gone Oh I, Oh I'd
better learn how to face it
She's Gone Oh I, Oh I'd
pay the devil to replace her
She's Gone - what went wrong

Chorus [repeat]

Sure why not

Sure why not or am I missing something

Don’t know, guess it might depend on where goes the closing quote

Have feeling they don;t mean exactly the same