Past perfect contin uous

:[t haii.,bft n uoi.ng},,

Study this examPle situation:

yesterdaY morning Yesterday morning I got up and looked out of the

window. The sun was shining, but the ground u-as
very wet.
It had been raining.
It was not ratningwhen I looked out of the windou-;
the sun was shining. But it had been raining before'
Had been -ing is the past perfect continwous:
doing
I/we/you/they (= I'd etc.)
working
had been
he/she/it he'd etc.) playing etc.
.(=

, '"' : : ' Some more examPles:

their hair was untidy and
n \lhen the boys came into the house, their clothes were dirt
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.
tr
friend of mine' she'd been living
\hen I went to Madrid a few years ago, I stayed with
a
n
there only a short time but knew the city very
well'

before something else

something had been happening for a period of time
ff,..x:jl'that it started to rain heavily'
n \/e,d been playing tennis for about half an hour when
nGeorge*.rrr,othedoctorlastFriday'Hehadn'tbeenfeelingwellforsometime'
'inuous) and had been -ing (past perfect continuows\:
i

P ast p erfect continuows

Present Perfect continwows

I have been *ing I had been -ing

Past now
pdst
n At last the bus came. I'd been waiting
ni hope the bus comes soon' I've been
for Z0 minutes. (before the bus came)
waiting for 20 minutes' (before now)
n James was out of breath'
He had been
fames is out of breath' He
n has been
running.
running.

had been -ing:

Compare was -ing (past continuous) and the
lr out. The sun was shining' But it had been raining' so
n It wasnt raining when we went
ground was wet.
she'd been working
n cathy was sitting in an armchair resting. she was tired because
very hard-

iffi Someverbs(forexample'knowandlike)arenotnormallyusedinthecontinuous:
n \le were good friends. \)fe had known each other for years.
(not had been knowing)

For a list of these verbs, see Unit 4A'

-- Units 9-10 Past perfect simple '- Unit 15

Present perfect continuous