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Past Perfect Continuous Tense - EnglishClub

The past perfect continuous tense describes actions that were ongoing or in progress up until some point in the past. It is formed using had been + the present participle of the main verb. Some example sentences in the past perfect continuous tense are: "I had been working", "You had been playing tennis", and "We had not been expecting her." The past perfect continuous tense is used to refer to ongoing past actions that help explain or provide context for other past events.

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2K views3 pages

Past Perfect Continuous Tense - EnglishClub

The past perfect continuous tense describes actions that were ongoing or in progress up until some point in the past. It is formed using had been + the present participle of the main verb. Some example sentences in the past perfect continuous tense are: "I had been working", "You had been playing tennis", and "We had not been expecting her." The past perfect continuous tense is used to refer to ongoing past actions that help explain or provide context for other past events.

Uploaded by

idahashim
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Past Perfect Continuous Tense (EnglishClub.

com)
I had been singing

How do we make the Past Perfect Continuous Tense?

The structure of the past perfect continuous tense is:

subject + auxiliary verb HAVE + auxiliary verb BE + main verb

conjugated in simple past tense past participle present participle

had been base + ing

For negative sentences in the past perfect continuous tense, we insert not after the first auxiliary verb. For
question sentences, we exchange the subject and first auxiliary verb. Look at these example sentences
with the past perfect continuous tense:

subject auxiliary verb auxiliary verb main verb

+ I had been working.

+ You had been playing tennis.

- It had not been working well.

- We had not been expecting her.

? Had you been drinking?

? Had they been waiting long?


When speaking with the past perfect continuous tense, we often contract the subject and first auxiliary verb:

I had been I'd been

you had been you'd been

he had been he'd been


she had been she'd been
it had been it'd been

we had been we'd been

they had been they'd been

How do we use the Past Perfect Continuous Tense?

The past perfect continuous tense is like the past perfect tense, but it expresses longer actions in the past
before another action in the past. For example:

Ram started waiting at 9am. I arrived at 11am. When I arrived, Ram had been waiting for two hours.

Ram had been waiting for two hours when I arrived.

past present future

Ram starts waiting in past at


9am.

9 11

I arrive in past at 11am.

Here are some more examples:


John was very tired. He had been running.
I could smell cigarettes. Somebody had been smoking.
Suddenly, my car broke down. I was not surprised. It had not been running well for a long time.
Had the pilot been drinking before the crash?

You can sometimes think of the past perfect continuous tense like the present perfect continuous tense, but
instead of the time being now the time is past.

past perfect continuous tense present perfect continuous tense


had | | | have |
been | | | been |
doing | | | doing |
>>>> | | | >>>> |

past now future past now future

For example, imagine that you meet Ram at 11am. Ram says to you:

"I am angry. I have been waiting for two hours."

Later, you tell your friends:

"Ram was angry. He had been waiting for two hours."

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