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.
We form the Past Perfect Contiuous with had been and the -ing form of the verb
Had been + V-ing
Positive Sentence:
S + had + been + V-ing (present participle) +…
Example:
 They had been launching rockets.

Negative Sentence:
S + had not/ hadn’t + been +V-ing (present participle) +…
Example:
 They hadn’t been launching rockets.

Question Form:
Had + S + been + V-ing (present participle)?
Example:
 Had they been launching rockets?

How to Use the Past Perfect Continuous Tense?

The Past Perfect Progressive is used:
1. To describe a past action, already started and continued up to another
action or time in the past
Example:
 the boys had been running in the streets for about an hour when it started to
rain.

2. To express the duration before something in the past

Example:
 I needed a breack because I had been working hard for staight 8 hours.
3. To describe the cause of something in the past
Example:
 He was exhausted because he had been working.
Adverbs of Time
 When
 Before
 By the time
 For
 Since…