Unit 16. Past perfect continuous (I had been doing).
Unit 16; Part A
Study this example situation:Yesterday morning I got up and looked out of the window. The sun was shining, but the ground was very wet.
It had been raining.
It was not raining when I looked out of the window; the sun was shining. But it had been raining before.
Had been -ing is the past perfect continuous:
I/we/you/they he/she/it | had | (= I'd etc.) (= he'd etc.) | been | doing working playing etc. |
Some more examples:
• When the boys came into the house, their clothes were dirty, their hair was untidy and one of them had a black eye. They'd been fighting.
• I was very tired when I got home. I'd been working hard all day.
• When I went to Madrid a few years ago, I stayed with a friend of mine. She'd been living there only a short time but knew the city very well.
Unit 16; Part B
You can say that something had been happening for a period of time before something else happened:• We'd been playing tennis for about half an hour when it started to rain heavily.
• George went to the doctor last Friday. He hadn't been feeling well for some time.
Unit 16; Part C
Compare have been -ing (present perfect continuous) and had been -ing (past perfect continuous): |
Unit 16; Part D
Compare was -ing (past continuous) and had been -ing:
• It wasn't raining when we went out. The sun was shining. But it had been raining, so the ground was wet.
• Cathy was sitting in an armchair resting. She was tired because she'd been working very hard.
Unit 16; Part E
Some verbs (for example, know and like) are not normally used in the continuous:• We were good friends. We had known each other for years. (not had been knowing)
For a list of these verbs, see Unit 4A.
Exercises
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