I was watching tv series where police said “he could have been wearing gloves’ I think he speculated the past event..but I really can't understand the reason behind using ing and been...because we usually speculate past thing something like that “they could have gone there” I want to know the meaning and you can give me more example like this
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Do you mean as opposed to ...could have worn gloves? Often it's just a stylistic choice. – FumbleFingers Mar 15 '20 at 18:10
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It doesn't need a transitive verb. "I could have been working" is a very common construction. I am working, I was working, I have been working. – Weather Vane Mar 15 '20 at 18:12
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Quote marks in English are “ and ” . Don't use ((( ))) to delimit quotes. The ((( ))) has been used by various anti-semitic groups, that you probably don't want to be associated with. Please remember to spell correctly: The correct spelling of I is never i. – James K Mar 15 '20 at 19:57
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Have + past participle => perfect (eg I have seen)
Be + present participle => continuous (eg I am wearing)
Put them together and you get
Have + past participle of be + present participle => perfect continuous (eg I have been wearing)
I have worn gloves usually means "On at least one occasion, not necessarily recently, I wore gloves" - the "present relevance" indicated by the perfect here means "These occasions occurred over a period extending up to the present (even if there didn't happen to be a recent occasion)".
I have been wearing gloves focuses on the wearing as a continuing event: it usually indicates a recent occasion.
answered Mar 15 '20 at 18:15
