affirmative, negative, yes/no, wh- questionsb2

Past perfect continuous

They had been walking for hours when they saw the house in the distance.
She was worried because he hadn’t been sleeping well recently.
We'd been dancing for hours and we were tired.
He had a headache because he'd been studying since five o’clock in the morning.

We form the past perfect continuous with:

had + been + -ing.

Positive and negative
	Subject	had	been	-ing
+	It	had	been	raining	hard.
-	I	hadn't	been	feeling	well for hours.

Questions
Question word	had/hadn't	subject	been	ing
How long	had	you	been	waiting	before he arrived?
Why	hadn't	she	been	feeling	well?

We use the past perfect continuous to talk about an action or a situation that continued for a period of time before another action or situation in the past. This action may or may not have continued up to the moment we are talking about it.

I’d been living in Italy for three years when we first met. (I was still living in Italy when we met.)
When I woke up, I saw that it had been raining. (It had stopped raining by the time I woke up.)

Practice 5 Multiple choice

Practice 6 Multiple choice

Grammar contentsView all

Present perfect and past perfect

Present perfect continuous

affirmative, negative, yes/no, wh- questionsb1

contrast: present perfect continuous vs present perfect simpleb2