Past Perfect Continuous Tense
Past Perfect Tense is basically used to talk about an action that happened and finished before another action in the past while Past Perfect Continuous or Past Perfect Progressive is fundamentally used to describe an action that was in progress until another past action. This article will discuss in detail about the forms, usages and examples.
Form
Forms
Positive : Sub + had been + V-ing …………..
Ex. I had been living with my mom in the countryside before I moved to the city in 2005.
Negative : Sub + had not been + V-ing …………..
Ex. She had not been attending class regularly when she was suspended from school.
Yes/ No : Had + Sub + been + V-ing……………….?
Ex. Had you been living with your mom in the countryside before you moved to the city in 2005?
Wh-Question : Wh-word + had + Sub + been + V-in……….?
Ex. Where had you been working when you were fired?
Usage 1
Past Perfect Continuous is used to talk about the action that was happening until another past action.
He had been working for that school for 10 years when he was promoted to be a principal. As we can see from the above example, there are two past actions.
- Past action number 1: He had been working for that school for 10 years.
- Past action number 2: when he was promoted to be a principal.
The action of working for the school was happening until the action of promoting to be a principal.
He had been driving so fast before he crashed into a tree.
The action of driving fast was going on until he crashed into a tree.
- They had been playing volleyball every weekend when they were at high school in 2000.
- She had been working as teacher before she was promoted to be a head teacher last week.
- People had been watching black and white TVs before the invention of modern TVs.
- I had been walking to school every day when I was at elementary school.
- The violent video on a kid that was removed from TikTok had been running for two hours.
- She had been doing a lot of charity work before she left our country.
Usage 2
Past Perfect Continuous Tense can also be used to describe a cause and effect. See the following examples.
I was exhausted as I had been working so hard under the sun for 3 hours.
- Cause: I had been working
- Effect or result: I was exhausted.
She finally passed the exam with the best grade because she had been studying very hard.
- Cause: she had been studying very hard
- Effect or result: She finally passed the exam with the best grade.
Past Perfect Vs Past Perfect Continuous
Past Perfect Tense is used to describe a past action that happened and finished before another past action while the action of Past Perfect Continuous was in progress up to another past action. See the examples below.
- I had done all my homework before I played game on my smart phone. ( I finished doing my homework before I played game.)
- I had been playing game on my smart phone before I went to bed. ( The action of playing game was happening until I went to bed.)
Practice
Complete the sentences using the correct form of the Past Perfect Progressive.
- Theary needed a break because she _________ (solve) past perfect continuous tense exercises all morning.
- When Dalin moved to England, she _________ (study) English for 12 years.
- I did not go out last night because I _________ (work)all day.
- Kanha felt fit for the marathon because she _________ (exercise) a lot.
- When I went to see Miss. Raksmey, her secretary told me that she _________ (speak) on the phone for two hours.
- You got sick because you _________ (eat) all the time.
- When the musician became director of the opera house, he ________ (live) in this town for ten years.
- We _________ (go) out together for two years before I met his family.
- The passengers _________ (wait) for four hours before the ground staff could finally give them information on the delay of their flight.
- When I noticed my mistake, I _________ (drive) for an hour in the wrong direction.
