Past Perfect Continues Tense- ENGLISH GRAMMAR

PAST PERFECT CONTINUES TENSE

BY

SMART LEARNING WAY

CONTENTS 

Introduction

Use Of Past Perfect Continues Tense

Example

How do we make the Past Perfect Continuous Tense?

Descriptive sentence

Negative sentence

The Past Perfect Continuous/Past Perfect 

Progressive is formed this way:

Examples

Past Perfect Continuous Tense Function

Introduction

•Describes an action that was being completed at a specific time in the past

•Requires the present participle plus the helping verbs had been to form the past perfect progressive tense

•We had been reviewing the software.

•She had been representing our department at software evaluation meetings.

•Use of Past perfect continues

  The Past Perfect Continuous (Past Perfect Progressive) is used to talk about actions that began in the past and lasted up until another action in the past.

 The past perfect continuous tense is used to talk about longer situations that continued up to the moment in the past we are talking about.

•Past Perfect Continuous

FORM

          [had been + present participle]

Examples:

•You had been waiting there for

more than two hours when she

 finally arrived.

•Had you been waiting

there for more than two hours

when she finally arrived?

•You had not been waiting there for more than two hours when she finally arrived.

•How do we make the Past Perfect Continuous Tense?

The structure of the past perfect continuous tense is:

Declarative sentences

Examples:

•I had been running for an hour when it 

started raining. (Use 1)

•Mary said she had never been swimming 

so much in one day. (Use 3)

•Kathy put on weight because she had been eating too much sugar. (Use 1)

•Everything had been going well in my life until my world fell apart several months 

ago. (Use 1)

•Negative sentence

Examples:

•He said he wasn't tired because he

hadn't been working that day. (Use 3)

•If it hadn't been raining, we would 

have played football. (Use 2)

•Had I not been studying all night, I 

would have problems with this test now. (Use 2)

•The Past Perfect Continuous/Past Perfect Progressive is formed this way:

subject + had been + -ing.

•The conjugation is fairly simple because only the subject changes.

•examples

She/He/It had been talking. She/He/It had been walking. She/He/It had been dancing. She/He/It had been eating.

They had been talking. They had been walking. They had been dancing. They had been eating.

 We had been talking. We had been walking. We had been dancing. We had been eating. 

•Past Perfect Continuous Tense Function

 The Past Perfect Continuous has two main functions.

(1) To emphasize the duration of an activity that was in progress before another activity or 

time in the past.

For example, I had been waiting for them for thirty minutes before they finally showed up.

(2) To express an activity that was in progress close in time to another activity or time in the 

past.

For example, She was all wet because she had been jogging in the rain.