Past Perfect Continuous Tense | SSC CGL Tier 2 - Study Material, Online Tests, Previous Year PDF Download

Introduction

The Past Perfect Continuous is another tense that signifies an occurrence in the past that continued up to another point in the past.

How to make the Past Perfect Continuous tense?

The structure of the Past Perfect Continuous tense is:

The first auxiliary verb (have) is conjugated in the Past Simple, invariable: had
The second auxiliary verb (be) is invariable in past participle form: been
The main verb is invariable in present participle form: -ing

For negative sentences we insert not after the first auxiliary verb.
For question sentences, we exchange the subject and the first auxiliary verb.
Look at these example sentences with the Past Perfect Continuous tense:

Contraction with Past Perfect Continuous

When we use the Past Perfect Continuous in speaking, we often contract the subject and the first auxiliary verb. We also sometimes do this in informal writing.

• He'd been drinking all day.
• It'd been pouring with rain.

In negative sentences, we may contract the first auxiliary verb and "not":

• We hadn't been living there long.
• They hadn't been studying very hard.

How do we use the Past Perfect Continuous tense?

The Past Perfect Continuous tense is like the Past Perfect tense, but it expresses longer actions in the past before another action in the past. For example:

• Ram started waiting at 9am. I arrived at 11am. When I arrived, Ram had been waiting for two hours.

Here are some more examples:

• John was very tired. He had been running.
• I could smell cigarettes. Somebody had been smoking.
• Suddenly, my car broke down. I was not surprised. It had not been running well for a long time.
• Had the pilot been drinking before the crash?

You can sometimes think of the Past Perfect Continuous tense like the Present Perfect Continuous tense, but instead of the time being now the time is before.

For example, imagine that you meet Ram at 11am. Ram says to you:

• "I am angry. I have been waiting for two hours."

Later, you tell your friends:

• "Ram was angry. He had been waiting for two hours."