Past Perfect Continuous

Past Perfect Continuous

Structure

Concepts

Exercises

"By the time I had been practicing for years, I realized that success is a journey, not a destination." - Zig Ziglar

Structure

Affirmative & negative

Subject + had been + verb -ing + C

I had been living in that apartment for 3 years when I bought my house. She hadn't been studying English for very long before she moved.

Questions

Contracted forms

Had + Subject + been + verb -ing + C

Had - 'd Had not - Hadn't

Concepts

Had she been studying for very long before she moved?

Concept: Emphasis on duration

We use the Past Perfect Continuous to talk about an action that happened over a period of time, before another action in the past. When we use the Past Perfect Continuous, we normally emphasize the duration of the activity.

• I was very upset because I'd been wating for him for 45 minutes!

• I finally decided to buy this phone, but I'd been searching for a good model for months.

Click on the buttons for more examples.

Structure

How long?

Exercises

How long...?

Duration of an activity

To ask about the duration of the activity, you can ask "How long...": How long had you two been going out before you made it official? We had been seing each other for 10 months.

Concept

Exercises

Structure

Exercises

E1 Structure

E2 Structure

You can practice the past perfect continuous tense with these exercises.

Mixed

Exercise 5: structure and concepts

Exercise 6: forms and tenses

Exercise 7: adverbs

You've finished!