Past Perfect Continuous

Tense

Formation

Past Perfect Continuous (it is the past form of the Present Perfect Continuous)

Positive Sentences:

had + been+ Ving

I had been watching TV

Questions:

Had + he/she/ it…+ been+ Ving

Had you been watching TV?

Negatives:

I/you/he/she… + had + been+ Ving

I had not been watching TV

Frequency adverbs:

Just (+), so far (+), already (+), yet (?,-), ever (?), never (-), lately (+), recently(?,+), since …….(from a starting point), for ….hours, minutes, years, months, days ( a time period is taken), that day, that year…. (+), all… (+) How long ….? WITH REFERENCE TO THE PAST

I had been feeling sleepy all day so I went to bed early.

Meaning

Past Perfect Continuous Inclusive: An action which had been in progress up to some definite moment in the past

Past Perfect Continuous Exclusive: An action which began in the past, continued to the moment in the past & finished right before the definite moment in the past started & the results of that action were seen

They had been climbing for five hours before they reached the top of the mountain.

We had been walking for 20 minutes when we met a stranger.

Mike said he had been working in the library since 10 o’clock

I looked out of the window. The ground was wet. It had been raining, I thought.

Past Continuous

Past Perfect

Past Perfect Continuous

Was were + Ving

Had +V3/Ved

Had+ been + Ving

An action which was in progress during a period of time in the past

A past event which happened before another past event

An action which had been in progress up to the time in the past

I was listening to the news at 9 o’clock last night.

I had listened to the news before I went to bed

I had been listening to the news when I saw it was time to go to bed.