Past Perfect Continuous

Past Perfect Continuous Conjugation
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. However, there are more parts for the ESL student to keep in order.
Here are some examples with I, you, he/she/it, they and we.
1. I had been talking. I had been walking. I had been dancing. I had been eating.

2. You had been talking. You had been walking. You had been dancing. You had been eating.

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

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

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

Past Perfect Continuous Forms (five forms the ESL student must learn)
1. Affirmative Usage (e.g., She had been studying English grammar for a year before she started speaking English.)

2. Negative Usage (e.g., She had not been sleeping for more than a few minutes before the baby woke her up.)

3. Yes/No Questions (e.g., Had she been playing tennis for a while?)

4. Short Answers (e.g., Yes, she had been. No, she hadn't been. Or, Yes, she had. No, she hadn't.)

5. WH- Questions (e.g., When had she been studying the Past Perfect Progressive?)

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.
 
 

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