Unit Four : Law and order

Name: ……………………………………

Grade:7_ Section: ( )

GRAMMAR_ - Unit (4)

Part (B): Past perfect continuous:

perfect continuous refers to the duration of an event taking place before a

certain time in the past.

Form Affirmative Negative Interrogative

I had been studying. I had not been studying. Had I been studying?
had been v-ing
You had been You had not been Had you been
studying. studying. studying?

Examples:
 You had been playing tennis for two hours before it started to rain heavily.
 Had you been playing tennis for two hours before it started to rain heavily?

Function:
1. We use the past perfect continuous to show emphasis on the duration of an action which
started in the past and continued for some time in the past.

Time expressions: for (an hour, years,…etc) / all (the day, week, …etc.) + before+ past simple

Example: time expression

 I had been living in Thailand for three years before I moved to Canada.

Past perfect cont. for (duration) past simple

It had been raining all the night before it finally stopped.

All (duration) past simple

1
 2. To show cause and effect.

Example:

she was so tired. she had been working for hours.

Result Cause

- My hands were dirty because I had been repairing my bike for many hours.

Note:
A) Because can be used to show reason in the past perfect simple or to show the duration in the
past perfect continuous

[They passed the exam because they had worked very hard) [no duration]

But [They passed the exam because they had been working on the project all the night]
Duration
B) Stative verbs come in past perfect tense only. Study the following examples:

- I had been knowing Sara for many years before she finally moved to Italy. [ incorrect]

I had known Sara for many years before she finally moved to Italy.

Other stative verbs that you need to remember and study them by heart:

believe, know, understand, like, hate, love, want, remember,

need

English Language Department