PAST PERFECT CONTINUOUS TENSE

Ø Past Perfect Continuous tense is used to describe an activity or a state which began in the past and lasted until a second time in the past.

Ø Past Perfect Continuous tense digunakan untuk menyatakan suatu kejadian / perbuatan yang masih sedang  berlangsung ketika suatu kejadian lain terjadi di masa lampau. Perbuatan yang terjadi lalu dinyatakan dalam Simple Past.

Ø (+) : S + Had + Been + Verb-ing

o   When I returned last night, They had been studying for half an hour.

o   We had been working for hours by the time he got there.

o   By 9 p.m last night, she had been preparing her homework for sometime.

Ø (-) : S + Had + Not + Been + Verb-ing

Note : Bentuk (-) dari tense ini jarang digunakan.

Ø (?) : Had + S + Been + Verb-ing

o   Had you been waiting long when she returned last night ?

Answer :     - Yes, I had.

                   - No, I hadn’t.

o   How long had they been living there by last year ?

     Answer :       They had been living there for 2 years by last year.

Ø You can say that something had been happening for a period of time before something else happened.

o   Our game of tennis was interrupted. We had been playing for about half an hour when it started to rainy very heavily.

o   Ken gave up smoking two years ago. He had been smoking for 20 years.

Ø Had been-ing (Past Perfect Continuous) is the past of Have been-ing (Present Perfect Continuous). Compare

1.     Present Perfect Continuous

        S + Have/Has + Been + Verb-ing

o   I hope the bus comes soon. I have been waiting 20 minutes

o   He is out of breath. He has been running.

2.     Past Perfect Continuous

        S + Had + Been + Verb-ing

o   At last the bus came. I had been waiting for 20 minutes.

o   He was out of breath. He had been running.

Ø Compare had been doing and was doing (Past Continuous)

o   It wasn’t training when we went out. The sun was shining. But it had been raining, so the ground was wet.

o   Ann was sitting in an armchair watching television. She was tired because she had been working very hard.

Ø Some verbs (for example, know and want) are normally used in the continuous :

o   We were good friends. We had known each other for years.