Past Perfect vs. Past Perfect Continuous

John: Where have you been? I had been waiting for you in the café by 6 a.m.

Dora: I was hurrying to the café when I slipped on the banana peel and fell down.

Dr. Jackson said that I had broken my leg.

Look at these highlighted forms. Do you recognize them? What tense forms are they?

had been waiting is The Past Perfect Continuous Tense

had broken is The Past Perfect Tense.

Today in the lesson we’ll compare these two tenses:

-                     their formation;

-                     their usage;

-                     time expressions that help us to define the Past Perfect or the Past Perfect Continuous;

-                     we will practice the usage of these tenses in different situations.

First let’s revise the formation of the Past Perfect Tense.

We form the Past Perfect Tense with the help of HAD and regular forms of the main verb (by putting the ending –ed to the main verb) or irregular forms of the main verb (using the list of irregular verbs or learning them by heart).

E.g.

I had talked / seen to him before.

We form questions be putting HAD before the subject.

E.g.

Had I talked / seen to him before?

We form the negations by putting not after HAD (had not or hadn’t for short)

E.g.

I hadn’t talked / seen to him before.

Now let’s consider the formation of the Past Perfect Continuous Tense.

We form the Past Perfect Continuous Tense with the help of auxiliary verb had, the 3^rd form of the verb to be (been) and the main verb with the – ing suffix.

We form questions by putting had before the subject.

E.g.

Had it been snowing for two hours by 9 a.m. yesterday?

We form negations by putting not between had and been.

E.g.

It hadn’t been snowing for two hours by 9 a.m. yesterday.

Usage

We use the Past Perfect Tense for one past action which happened before another past action or a stated time in the past. The action that happened earlier in the past (“older action”) is in the past perfect tense and the action which happened later (“younger action”) is in the Past Simple.

E.g.

He missed the train, because he had overslept.

He didn’t get a table at the restaurant because he had forgotten to book it.

The Past Perfect Continuous is used to show the duration of an action which started and finished in the past before another past action or a stated time in the past.

E.g.

Mark had been working for the company for twenty years before he retired.

Past Perfect is used for an action which finished in the past and whose result was visible in the past.

E.g.

He was happy because she had taken the first prize.

The Past Perfect Continuous is used for an action which lasted for some time in the past and whose result was visible in the past.

E.g.

He was wet because he had been running in the rain.

The Past perfect is the Past equivalent of the Present Perfect. Compare these two sentences.

E.g.

They were not hungry. They had already eaten lunch.

(The action had eaten happened in the past and the result were not hungry was visible in the past, too.)

E.g.

They are not hungry. They have just eaten lunch.

(The action have eaten happened in the past and the result are not hungry is still visible in the present.)

The Past Perfect Continuous is the past equivalent of the Present Perfect Continuous. Compare these two sentences.

a) Simon was frightened. He had been watching a horror film for half an hour.

(The action “had been watching” lasted for some time in the past and the result “was frightened” was visible in the past.)

b) Simon is frightened. He has been watching a horror film for half an hour.

(The action “has been watching” started in the past and the result “was frightened” is still visible in the present.)

Both the past perfect and the past perfect continuous are used with the following time expressions: for, since, how long, before, after, till/until, by the time.

E.g.

I had been trying to find him for years but I failed.

They had known each other for a long time.

She had finished her work before she left.

She had been learning to speak English for a year before she went to England.

How long had you been sitting in front of the TV set before it broke?

How long had you been there?

Now it’s time to practice the usage of these tenses.

Correct mistakes in the following sentences:

1.                They had been driving for three hours before they stopped to look at the map.

2.                Mandy felt sick. She had been eating chocolates all morning.

3.                Chris finally found the guitar after he had been searching all morning.

4.                The waiter served something that I hadn’t ordered.

5.                His knees and hands were very dirty. He had crawled in the garden.

6.                He had to go to the dentist because he hadn’t cleaned his teeth.

Complete the sentences with the verbs in brackets using Past Perfect or Past Perfect Continuous tenses.

1.         A: Yesterday I had a terrible headache.

      B: Of course, you had bee lying in the sun all day.

2.         A: Why didn’t you go to the beach?

      B: Because it had been raining.

3.         A: Why didn’t you watch the film?

      B: Because I had already watched it.

4.         A: Why didn’t you know how to do the exercise?

      B: I hadn’t been listening to the teacher.

5.       A: I feel unwell.

B: Of course, you had eaten all the pie before we got back.

So now we can claim that now we know for sure:

-                     how to form the tenses correctly;

-                     in what situations to use the present perfect and present perfect continuous tenses;

-                     don’t forget about the time markers that help us to define the tense correctly.

Practice your grammar skills because practice makes PERFECT!