Difference Between Have Been and Has Been

Have Been vs Has Been

“Have been” and “has been” are used in the present perfect continuous form of sentences. For example, She has been going to school and They have been going to school.

Present Perfect Continuous
The present perfect continuous form is used to denote that something which had begun in the past is still continued. Some of the phrases which denote time can be used for this tense, for example, “for three years” and “since Wednesday,” etc.

Present perfect continuous can also be used without using the phrases which denote time. This tense already denotes time in general, and words like “recently” and “lately” can be used in forming sentences. For example, She has been feeling happy lately. They have been practicing football. In the second sentence, it is understood that a group has been practicing football lately. We may or may not use the word “recently” or “lately.”

This tense can also be used for interrogation. If it is not wisely or correctly used, it can offend people. When the tense is used in an interrogative form, it denotes that one can see, feel, hear, or smell the consequences of some action which has been continued until that very moment. For example, Have you been drinking? It means that one can see and smell the result of someone’s drinking.

After understanding the use of the present continuous tense, let’s move on to the use of tenses with respect to the first person, second person, and third person. These denote the personal pronouns. All three pronoun categories have singular and plural forms.

First person
This pronoun is used when one refers to oneself or refers to oneself with others. The singular of the first person is “I, me, mine,” and plurals are “we, us, our,” and “ours.” For example:
I have been going to school every day.
We have been practicing football for the past three weeks regularly.
The first example is of the first person singular, and the second example is of the first person plural.

Second person
Second person is used to address the one reading or listening. The pronouns used are “you, your,” and “yours.” For example:
You have been going to school regularly.

Third person
The third person is the most commonly used form. There are many singular pronouns: “he, her, she, him, her, his, its,” etc. in the third person, and many plural pronouns like: “they, theirs, them,” etc. For example:
They are going to school.
He is going to school.
After understanding the usages of present perfect continuous and the use of first, second, and third person singular and plural pronouns, we can understand the difference between “has been” and “have been.”
“Have been” is used in the present continuous perfect tense in the first, second, and third person plural form whereas “has been” is used in the singular form only for the third person.
Summary:

“Have been” is used in the present continuous perfect tense in the first, second, and third person plural form whereas “has been” is used in the singular form only for the third person.

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