''Have been following" or " Be following"
This is an exercise problem in my grammar book.

There is a man walking behind us. He has been walking behind us for the last 20 minutes. He must____________.

The standard answer is _be following._ But I'm wondering if "have been following" will be a better choice, since the action has been lasted for 20 minutes, and it's still happening, and more importantly, the speaker wants to emphasis the action itself, and the present perfect continous works well in this kind of situation when we're underlining the action, the process.

Question

''Have been following" or " Be following"
This is an exercise problem in my grammar book.

There is a man walking behind us. He has been walking behind us for the last 20 minutes. He must____________.

The standard answer is _be following._            But I'm wondering if  "have been following" will be a better choice, since the action has been lasted for 20 minutes, and it's still happening, and more importantly, the speaker wants to emphasis the action itself, and the present perfect continous works well in this kind of situation when we're underlining the action, the process.

Answer

If the person had stopped following them must have been following is correct. If he is still following then it would be 'must be following' or 'is following'

Answers · 2

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