Past Perfect Continuous – B1 Grammar Rules & Practice
Rule: Past Perfect Continuous – B1 Grammar ShowHide
had been + -ing
An activity that went on for some time up to a moment in the past.
- How long – with for, since, all day: Pam had been doing the same job for ten years before she tried something different.
- The cause of a past result: Driving to work was difficult as it had been snowing all night.
I hadn't been sleeping well.
His clothes were covered in mud. What had he been doing?
Past Perfect Simple instead
had + 3rd form – the focus is on a finished action or its result.
- How many, how much: I had looked at twenty flats before I found one I liked.
- Done before another moment: I had finished my homework by the time my friends arrived.
- Something that didn't happen: We were hungry because we hadn't eaten since breakfast.
- State verbs – know, like, have (own): We had known each other for years.
Ask yourself: is it about the duration, how long it was going on? Take the continuous: They had been filming the same scene for three hours. Is it about the result, what was done or how many times? Take the simple: The phone had rung six times before they answered it.
Tasks
had been + -ing
An activity that went on for some time up to a moment in the past.
- How long – with for, since, all day: Pam had been doing the same job for ten years before she tried something different.
- The cause of a past result: Driving to work was difficult as it had been snowing all night.
I hadn't been sleeping well.
His clothes were covered in mud. What had he been doing?
Past Perfect Simple instead
had + 3rd form – the focus is on a finished action or its result.
- How many, how much: I had looked at twenty flats before I found one I liked.
- Done before another moment: I had finished my homework by the time my friends arrived.
- Something that didn't happen: We were hungry because we hadn't eaten since breakfast.
- State verbs – know, like, have (own): We had known each other for years.
Ask yourself: is it about the duration, how long it was going on? Take the continuous: They had been filming the same scene for three hours. Is it about the result, what was done or how many times? Take the simple: The phone had rung six times before they answered it.