Meaning & use
they've been
Last updated
Meanings
phrasefixed phrase
Used to say that a group of people or things started something in the past and are still doing it or still in that state now.
Grammar: Comes before the main verb or adjective: They've been waiting. It cannot be split: not 'They've been they waiting'.
Patterns
- they've been + -ing
- they've been + adjective
- they've been + past participle
They've been waiting for the bus for twenty minutes.
They've been married since 2010.
They've been working on the project all week.
phrasefixed phrase
Used to talk about a repeated action or a state that happened at some time in the past and is relevant now.
Grammar: Often used with 'ever', 'never', 'before', or a number of times: They've been there twice.
Patterns
- they've been to + place
- they've been + adverb (before, already, never)
They've been to Japan three times.
Have they been to the new restaurant yet?
They've been very kind to us.
Common combinations
- they've been waiting
- They've been waiting outside for an hour.
- they've been married
- They've been married for five years.
- they've been to
- They've been to Paris twice.
- they've been very
- They've been very helpful.
Synonyms and how they differ
- they have been
- The full form is more formal and is preferred in academic writing; the contraction is more common in speech.
Word family
- they've phrase
- Contraction of 'they have'.
- they'd been phrase
- Contraction of 'they had been', used for the past perfect.
Commonly confused: they've been or they're being?
they've been vs they're being
They're being means 'they are behaving in a particular way now' (e.g. They're being silly). They've been focuses on a period leading up to now.
Practice
They ___ been waiting for over an hour.
Choose one answer.
The subject 'They' takes 'have', so the contraction is 'they've'. 'They's' is not standard English. 'They're been' is wrong because 'are' cannot be followed by 'been' in this structure. 'They'd been' would mean 'they had been', which changes the time reference and does not fit the present perfect context.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “they've been”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.