Past Perfect Continuous

The structure of the past perfect continuous tense is:

subject +  helping verb + helping verb + main verb

had + been + base + ing

Here are some examples of the past perfect continuous tense:

subject auxiliary verb auxiliary verb

main verb

+ I had been swimming when I fell.

+ You had been waiting for ages

- We had not been paying attention

- It had not been raining When I fell

? Had you been swimming When you broke your leg?

? Had It been raining The ground is wet

Uses

• USE 1 Duration Before Something in the Past

Uses - DURATION

• A: How long had you been studying English before you moved to Victoria?

B: I had not been studying English very long.

• (I’d not been studying for very long)

Uses

• USE 2 Cause of Something in the Past

Uses – CAUSE and effect

• Jason was tired because he had been jogging.

• Sam gained weight because he had been eating too much.

• Ben failed the final test because he had not been studying.

Present Perfect or Past Perfect Continuous?

• Tom looks very guilty, I think he’s been smoking.

• Tom looked guilty, I think he’d been smoking.

Don’t forget to use contractions when you speak!

I had been talking I’d been talkingYou had been talking You’d been talkingHe had been talkingShe had been talkingIt had been raining

He’d been talkingShe’d been talkingIt’d been raining

We had been talking We’d been talkingYou had been talking You’d been talkingThey had been talking They’d been talking

THE END

• They believed that Sam had just been having a very interesting lesson on the Past Perfect Continuous: