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Past Perfect Continuous

We use the past perfect continuous:

to put emphasis on the duration of an action which started and finished in the past before another past action or a stated time in the past, usually with since or for.

They had been looking for a house for six months before they found one they liked.

for an action which lasted for some time in the past and whose result was visible in the past.

We had been making chicken soup so the kitchen was still hot and steamy when she came in.

Practice

Exercise 1

Complete the conversation. Put in the past perfect continuous of the verbs.

A:How was your job interview?

B:Awful. I felt terribly nervous. (1) … (I / worry) about it all week. And I was tired because (2) … (I / work) on my project the night before. (3) … (I / not look)

forward to the interview at all.

A:So what happened?

B:The woman interviewing me was half an hour late because (4) … (she / deal) with an unexpected problem, she said. (5) … (I / wait) ages, and I’d got even more

nervous.

A:How did the interview go?

B:Well, I tried to sound confident. (6) … (I / read) a book that said that’s what you have to do in job interviews. But I don’t know if I gave the right answers.

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Exercise 2

Read the sentences about two mountain climbers. Then complete the sentence with the past perfect or past perfect continuous form of the verb in brackets.

1.The two climbers stopped to rest. They … (climb) for hours and were exhausted. Things were not looking good.

2.They were very cold, because it … (snow) heavily since midmorning, and one of them … (hurt) his ankle.

3.They … (look) for shelter for the past two hours, because they realized that the weather was going to get worse.

4.They … (already phone) the rescue centre for help.

5.They … (also leave) details of their planned route at the village where they stayed the night.

6.They were experienced climbers and they … (prepare) carefully for their trip. They knew there was a cave halfway up the mountain.

7.They spent a long time searching for the cave before they realized that they … (head) in the wrong direction. Then the snow stopped, and they could see the dark entrance of the cave nearby.

8.Luckily they … (bring) warm clothes and plenty of food with them, and they waited safely in the cave.

Exercise 3

Complete this text with these verbs in the past perfect or past perfect continuous.

The telephone call from the police was a shock, but not a complete surprise. Molly (1)

… constantly about the old house lying empty during two months since her mother went into hospital. She (2) … to go around and check the empty place, but she (3) … extra busy at work recently. According to the police, a homeless man (4) … into the house. They (5) … him one morning as he was leaving the building with one of her mother’s large paintings. When Molly walked into the house, it was obvious that the man (6) … there for quite a while. He (7) … food from the cupboards and throwing empty tins and packages all over the floor. He (8) … quite a mess. He (9) … also … several paintings from the walls. Molly decided not to tell her mother because she

(10)… already … enough pain in recent weeks and didn’t need any more bad news.

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Review of the past

Exercise 1

Put the verbs into the past simple, the past continuous, the past perfect or the past perfect continuous.

1.Before I … (get) my full-time job at the bank, I … (already / work) there for several months as an intern.

2.I’m sorry, I … (not / hear) what you said. I … (read) this article about Johnny Depp.

3.Henry was stopped by the police. He … (drive) too fast.

4.It’s OK, don’t worry, I … (just / finish) revising for my exam when you … (call).

5.While I … (work) in the bar last summer I … (meet) this guy called Jeff.

6.It was so nice to talk to Eva yesterday. I … (not / see) her for ages.

7.A young man was struck by the lightning. He … (stand) under a tree.

8.I … (not / meet) a man like Fabio before. He really … (listen) to me.

9.I … (revise) for my Economics exam when you … (come in).

10.Claire got burnt. She … (lie) in the sun.

Exercise 2

Underline the correct form.

1.When the police stopped / were stopping Smith's car for a routine check, they realized that he was the man who robbed / had robbed the bank.

2.I woke up in the middle of the night and turned on / was turning on the light. Someone or something climbed / was climbing in my window!

3.Unfortunately Jan arrived / was arriving at the station at 3.25, and found that she missed / had missed the train.

4.The doctors tried / had been trying their best, but while they were performing the operation, the patient died / was dying.

5.We'd been watching the film for half an hour before we realized that we were making / had made a terrible mistake. We went / had gone into the wrong cinema!

6.On the morning of the accident, Mr Davis just finished / had just finished a night shift at a local factory, and didn't have / hadn't had any sleep for 24 hours.

7.I'm sorry I didn't answer / wasn’t answering the phone earlier, but I was painting / had been painting the ceiling in my bedroom.

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8. On Christmas morning when they woke up / were waking up, the children looked eagerly out of the window. It snowed / had been snowing, and the garden was covered in a thick white carpet.

Exercise 3

Complete the anecdote by choosing the best tense in each case: the past simple, the past continuous and the past perfect.

A large corporation had just hired a new CEO. As the old CEO was leaving, he presented his successor with three envelopes numbered one, two and three. “If you have a problem you can’t solve, open the first of these,” he … (tell) the new CEO.

Well, at first things went smoothly, but after six months sales … (fall) by 10% and the shareholders … (get) very impatient. The CEO … (begin) to despair when he remembered the envelopes the old CEO … (give) him.

He … (go) to his office, … (close) the door and … (open) the first envelope. The message read, “Try blaming your predecessor.” The new CEO … (call) a press conference and blamed the previous CEO for the company’s problems. The shareholders and the press were satisfied with his explanations, and a few weeks later the CEO was relieved to see that sales … (improve) by 12%.

About a year later, the company … (have) serious production problems. The CEO … (learn) from his previous experience: as soon as he … (close) his office door, he opened the second envelope. The message read, “You ought to reorganize”. He immediately … (reorganize) production, and the company quickly recovered.

A year or two after that, costs … (rise) day by day and the company was in trouble again. The CEO … (go) to his office, … (close) the door and … (open) the third envelope. The message read, “You might want to prepare three envelopes”.

Exercise 4

Correct 20 mistakes in the use of tenses in this text.

A few years ago, when my friend and I were hitchhike through France, we sometimes stop for the night in a park or a field. If it wasn’t rain, we just sleep outside in our sleeping bags under the stars. We really enjoying that. If it was rain, we put up our small tent. One night, while we sleep in the tent, I think that the ground moving under me. I sit up and I realize that the tent was try to move and only the weight of our bodies was hold it in place. When we get outside, we discover that we stand ankledeep in a small stream and our tent slowly floats away. At first, we really surprised and worried, but then we think it is very funny.