The following sentence means that you have a question that you wanted or intended to ask someone for a long time, but you did not ask it until now. It is a way to introduce a question.
I‘ve been meaning to ask you something.
There are 3 B1 basic present perfect continuous points in the category of PAST in the English Grammar Profile that are hard to automatically differentiate from 1 basic point at B2.
B1 point 19 is defined:
present perfect continuous: repeated activities that began in the past and are still continuing.
B1 point 42:
present perfect continuous: AFFIRMATIVE
B1 point 45:
present perfect continuous: a single activity or state that began in the past and is still continuing, often with ‘for’ or ‘since’.
B2 Point 71 is:
the present perfect continuous to focus on a finished activity in the recent past but where the effects or results are still important or relevant.
An iWeb search for:
_VHZ been _VVG * *
1 HAS BEEN GOING ON FOR 8178
FOR EXAMPLE:
This has been going on for 40 years now.
2 HAS BEEN WORKING IN THE 2715
3 HAS BEEN WORKING WITH THE 2574
4 HAS BEEN WORKING ON THE 1733
5 HAS BEEN WORKING ON A 1643
6 HAS BEEN WORKING AS A 1502
7 HAS BEEN WORKING HARD TO 1354
8 HAS BEEN GOING ON SINCE 1331
9 HAS BEEN WORKING CLOSELY WITH 1297
10 ‘S BEEN GOING ON FOR 1219
11 HAS BEEN TRYING TO GET 1179 These long verb phrases should probably be considered B2:
when they write me about their financial problems,
but my staff has been trying to get me to stop.
12 HAS BEEN GOING ON IN 894
13 HAS BEEN GETTING A LOT 886
14 HAS BEEN LIVING IN THE 710
15 HAS BEEN MAKING THE ROUNDS 675
16 HAS BEEN WORKING ON THIS 616
17 HAS BEEN WORKING FOR THE 603
18 HAS BEEN LOOKING FOR A 533
19 HAS BEEN PROVIDING RESIDENTS OF 515
20 HAS BEEN SITTING IN THE 501
21 HAS BEEN GOING ON . 499
22 HAS BEEN WORKING AT THE 496
23 HAS BEEN GROWING AT A 489
24 HAS BEEN RUNNING FOR A 482
25 HAS BEEN WAITING FOR . 478
26 HAS BEEN GROWING IN POPULARITY 477
27 HAS BEEN WORKING WITH A 455
28 HAS BEEN TAKING CARE OF 448
29 HAS BEEN WORKING ON FOR 434
30 ‘S BEEN GOING ON IN 433
31 HAS BEEN GOING STRONG FOR 421
32 HAS BEEN WRITING PROFESSIONALLY SINCE 412
33 HAS BEEN OPERATING IN THE 401
34 HAS BEEN WORKING HARD ON 396
35 HAS BEEN GOING ON , 395
36 HAS BEEN GOING THROUGH A 393
37 HAS BEEN BUGGING ME FOR 383
38 HAS BEEN LEADING THE WAY 378
39 HAS BEEN DEALING WITH A 370
40 HAS BEEN RUNNING FOR OVER 351
41 HAS BEEN SITTING ON THE 346
42 HAS BEEN WORKING AS AN 343
43 HAS BEEN HAPPENING TO ME 342
44 HAS BEEN WORKING ON HIS 339
45 HAS BEEN BOTHERING ME FOR 331
46 HAS BEEN HAPPENING IN THE 330
47 HAS BEEN TRYING TO FIND 327
48 HAS BEEN LIVING IN A 322
49 HAS BEEN SERVING AS THE 318
50 HAS BEEN SITTING FOR A 318
1 HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR A 5202
2 HAVE BEEN TRYING TO GET 3495
3 HAVE BEEN USING IT FOR 3344
4 ‘VE BEEN LOOKING FOR A 3112
5 ‘VE BEEN LOOKING FOR . 2567
6 HAVE BEEN TRYING TO FIND 2557
7 ‘VE BEEN TRYING TO GET 2372
8 HAVE BEEN WORKING ON A 2357
9 ‘VE BEEN USING IT FOR 2224
10 HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR . 2086
11 HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR . 1851
12 HAVE BEEN WORKING HARD TO 1830
13 ‘VE BEEN WORKING ON A 1752
14 HAVE BEEN WORKING ON THE 1688
15 HAVE BEEN WORKING IN THE 1667
16 HAVE BEEN SEARCHING FOR A 1651
17 ‘VE BEEN TRYING TO FIND 1624
18 HAVE BEEN USING THIS PRODUCT 1579
19 HAVE BEEN WORKING WITH THE 1549
20 HAVE BEEN TRYING TO FIGURE 1523
21 HAVE BEEN WORKING ON THIS 1475
22 ‘VE BEEN WAITING FOR . 1423
23 HAVE BEEN LOOKING AT THE 1367
24 ‘VE BEEN WORKING ON THIS 1356
25 HAVE BEEN LOOKING FORWARD TO 1305
26 HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS 1271
27 ‘VE BEEN TRYING TO FIGURE 1243
28 ‘VE BEEN LOOKING FORWARD TO 1149
29 HAVE BEEN WORKING CLOSELY WITH 1100
30 ‘VE BEEN WORKING ON FOR 1057
31 HAVE BEEN USING THIS FOR 1041
32 HAVE BEEN USING THEM FOR 1027
33 ‘VE BEEN WAITING FOR THIS 1011
34 HAVE BEEN GOING ON FOR 1007
35 ‘VE BEEN LOOKING AT THE 984
36 HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR A 982
37 HAVE BEEN WORKING ON FOR 975
38 ‘VE BEEN PLAYING AROUND WITH 946
39 HAVE BEEN TRYING TO DO 944
40 ‘VE BEEN THINKING ABOUT THIS 938
41 HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR THE 918
42 HAVE BEEN LIVING IN THE 895
43 ‘VE BEEN WORKING ON THE 866
44 HAVE BEEN PLAYING AROUND WITH 842
45 HAVE BEEN WORKING AS A 828
46 ‘VE BEEN TRYING TO DO 825
47 HAVE BEEN WANTING TO TRY 820
48 ‘VE BEEN LIVING UNDER A 817
49 ‘VE BEEN THINKING A LOT 811
50 HAVE BEEN LOOKING FOR THE 808
For the B2 point, the only example given in the EGP follows the structure:
_jj _cs * have|has been _vvg
However, iWeb does not allow searching for it. The NOW corpus allows _jj when * have|has been _vvg
but it is incredibly rare with only single examples. The most decent shorter Ngrams we can get are on NOW corpus for:
1 WHEN THEY HAVE BEEN DRINKING 31
WalesOnline*this example is not one finished activity in the past though.
2 WHEN INFLATION HAS BEEN RUNNING 28 (almost all of these 28 are identical quotes)
- This has all happened at a time when inflation has been running at about half those rates.
3 WHEN YOU HAVE BEEN WORKING 25
4 WHEN YOU HAVE BEEN PLAYING 24
5 WHEN THEY HAVE BEEN WORKING 16
6 WHEN YOU HAVE BEEN DRINKING 16
7 WHEN IT HAS BEEN RAINING 14
Stoke-on-Trent Live
Liverpool Echo8 WHEN FGV HAS BEEN TAKING 10
9 WHEN HE HAS BEEN DRINKING 10
10 WHEN HE HAS BEEN PLAYING 10
A2:
around, bothering, care, growing, happening, over, serving, since, strong, through, try, trying, way
B1:
figure, forward, leading, operating, product, providing, searching
B2:
closely, popularity, residents, rounds, working on