‘Has Been’ or ‘Have Been’ or ‘Had Been’: How to Use Each One

'Have been,' 'has been' and 'had been' all sound very similar, but are they used for the same thing? How to know when and how to use each one? That is what we will cover in today's article.

The quick answer is:

• 'Has been' is the present perfect tense for the pronouns 'he', 'she', 'it'
• 'Have been' is the present perfect tense for the pronouns 'I', 'you', 'we', 'they'
• 'Had been' is the past perfect tense for all pronouns

When and How to Use Has Been or Have Been

Let's start with the present perfect. When and how should you use which phrase? What is the difference between the two? And what do these verb phrases mean?

You can first brush up on your present tenses here if you like.

Present Perfect and Present Perfect Continuous

You can use the present perfect and present perfect continuous tenses if you want to talk about something that happened in the past. Why, then, is it called the present perfect? That is because the past event or action continues to be true today.

Present Perfect

The present perfect tense describes an event or an action that happened in the past and is still true (although it may not be happening right now).

For example:

Of course Sally has been a bartender before! Back in her 20s. 

Even though Sally might not be a bartender currently, it is a fact about her life that continues to be true about her. For as long as she lives, the fact will remain true.

Here are some more examples:

HAS BEEN

• Henry has been nominated for Most Influential Businessman of the Year award.
• Shall we try that new Italian? It has only been open for a week.
• She has already been to the store
• It has been about two weeks since I saw her last.
• It has not been easy doing all this alone.
• He hasn't been very enthusiastic about the whole thing.
• How has she found the course so far? 

HAVE BEEN

• I haven't been to Manhattan in a while.
• You have not been to school for three days.
• We have been a fan of yours for years!
• They have never been here before.
• How have you been?
• I have not been on top of my game.
• We have only been here for about 10 minutes.  

Notice how you can move the order of the words around to formulate a question or add an adverb between 'has’/’have' and 'been' to make the sentence richer. You can even turn the sentence negative by using 'have not been' or 'haven't been.'

Contractions can also enable you to shorten 'have been' and 'has been.' They then become 've been and 's been. For example:

• We've been hopeful so far.
• She's been nervous about meeting you.

Present Perfect Continuous

Use the present perfect continuous for an action or event that started in the past and continues in the present.

For example:

We have been going to New York for our yearly vacation for over 20 years.

Evidently, they still go to New York for their yearly vacation.

Here are some more examples:

• David has been telling me all about your new project.
• Has it been fun working on this project?
• I have been following her on social media for a few years.
• Have you been watching House of Dragon?
• Sorry, we haven't been listening.
• You have not been paying attention.
• She has been waiting a long time.

'Has Been' and 'Have Been' as Helping Verbs

Have you noticed that in the present perfect continuous examples, 'has been' and 'have been' are not the only verbs in the above example sentences? That is because they are helping verbs. Therefore they cannot function alone - they complement another verb.

These are not the only helping verbs in the English language. Below are some example sentences containing other helping verbs. Underlined is the helping verb, and in bold is the main verb.

• He was lying from the beginning.
• It's not that far; maybe we should walk.
• We will go there tomorrow.
• We might see her tomorrow.

Helping verbs give more information to the reader. For instance, they can help clarify when the action or event happened, whether the sentence is an order or a question, or whether it is active or passive.

'Had been' is also a helping verb.

When and How to Use Had Been

Let's talk about the past perfect. When should you use 'had been,' and how is it different from 'has been' and 'have been'?

Brush up on your past tenses here.

Past Perfect and Past Perfect Continuous

Just like the present perfect, you use the past perfect to talk about something that happened in the past. So what is the difference between the present perfect and the past perfect?

The past perfect event of action have been; has been; had been. It started in the past and ended in the past.

Past Perfect

You can use the past perfect tense to describe an event or action that started and ended in the past.

For example:

Sally had never been a bartender until she got a bar job in her 20s.

In the above example, it is clear that Sally never being a bartender is no longer true. It started and ended in the past.

You might also say:

Sally had been a bartender in her 20s.

Saying it this way would imply that Sally is deceased, making the facts about her life a thing of the past.

Here are some more examples:

• He had been a favorite for the gold medal.
• I hadn't been to London before.
• Had you ever been in a managerial position before now?
• You had always been my favorite before that.
• We had not seen that coming.
• They had been married for 25 years.
• Jonny told me he'd never been so happy in his life. 

Just like 'has been' and 'have been,' with 'had been' you can also move the order of the words around to formulate a question; add in an adverb in between 'had' and 'been' to make the sentence richer; turn the sentence negative by using 'have not been' or the 'haven't been.'

You can also use the contraction 'd to shorten 'had been.'

For example:

• She'd been nervous about meeting you.
• We'd been hopeful so far.

Past Perfect Continuous

Whereas a past perfect sentence describes an event or action that started and ended in the past, there is no evidence of that event continuing over some time.

The past perfect continuous, however, is used to describe an event that started in the past and continued until another time in the past.

For example:

They had been going to New York for their yearly vacation for over 20 years until they started going to Cuba.

The couple in the example sentence used to go to New York, they carried on going to New York for over 20 years, and then they stopped going to New York. They no longer go to New York for their yearly vacation; they go to Cuba now.

Here are some more examples:

• We had been getting along just fine until he came along.
• I'd been auditioning daily when I got the role.
• The team had been working so hard to make it happen.
• He had been protesting when he got arrested.
• Had you been aware that this was going on?
• She hadn't told me about that.
• I hadn't ever thought that could be possible.

'Had Been' as a Helping Verb

Just like 'has been' and 'have been,' 'had been' is also a helping verb. Note how in the examples above, the verb 'had been' completes another (main) verb.

To Conclude for 'Has Been,' 'Have Been' and 'Had Been'

We hope you feel clearer about the usage of these three verb phrases. It can appear complicated, but once you understand the rules around the different tenses, it is actually quite simple.

To summarize, they all have similar meanings but will vary depending on

• Who the subject is (pronoun)
• Whether or not the event or action continues today

There is one more way you can use the term 'has been': when referring to someone who used to be important or admired and no longer is. It is a negative and judgmental term often used to refer to famous people who are no longer idolized.

We hope this helped!