

There is also a possibility that she was still exercising at that moment OR that she had just finished. It emphasizes that she was tired because she had been exercising over a period of time. She was tired because she had been exercising so hard.It emphasizes that she was tired as she was exercising at that exact moment. She was tired because she was exercising so hard.The examples given below can help you understand the difference: Past continuous lays emphasis on the interrupted actions, whereas past perfect continuous lays emphasis on a duration of time before something in the past. You must take extra care as it may change the meaning of the sentence. If we do not include a duration such as “for ten minutes,” “for three weeks” or “since Thursday,” many English speakers prefer to use the past continuous instead of the past perfect continuous. Jo failed the final exam because she had not been attending class.Zubi felt refreshed because she had been sleeping.Seri was exhausted because she had been dancing.B: I had not been studying Korean very long.Īnother fine way to indicate show and effect is of making use of the past perfect continuous before another action in the past.A: How long had you been studying Korean before you move to Seoul?.Ellen had been teaching at the school for more than a month before she left for London.Kat wanted to take a rest because she had been driving all day on road.How long had you been playing to get on the team?.He had been working at that NGO for two years when it got shut down.She had been dancing for over an hour before Sam arrived.But, the duration does not continue until now, it will stop before something else in the past. You will see that this is related to the present perfect continuous. “For ten minutes” and “for six weeks” are both durations that we can use with the past perfect continuous. We make use of the past perfect continuous tense for indicating that something began in the past and continued up until another time in the past.
#Past perfect continuous vs past perfect how to
To understand how to incorporate the past perfect continuous tense in our daily lives, we must learn about its uses. Negative: You had not been waiting there for more than twenty minutes when he finally arrived. Question: Had you been waiting there for more than twenty minutes when he finally arrived? Statement: You had been waiting there for more than twenty minutes when he finally arrived.

We form the past perfect continuous tense by making use of:įor indicating questions, we invert the subject and had. They had been playing music non-stop for ten minutes before he finally came out of the room to meet them.Linda had been learning ballet for 2 years when she finally asked to perform at the annual program.The employee that was terminated had been performing well since the last month.Jimin had been running five miles a day before he twisted his ankle.Thus, you see that the word when, for, since, and before are often used alongside the past perfect continuous tense. I had been working at the restaurant for two years when I got the promotion.

