Past perfect continuous | Free practice exercises

Present perfect and past perfect

Past perfect continuous

affirmative, negative, yes/no, wh- questionsb2

Past perfect continuousThey 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 negativeSubjecthadbeen-ing+Ithadbeenraininghard.-Ihadn'tbeenfeelingwell for hours.QuestionsQuestion wordhad/hadn'tsubjectbeeningHow longhadyoubeenwaitingbefore he arrived?Whyhadn'tshebeenfeelingwell?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.)

Use the past perfect continuous form and the words in brackets to complete the second sentence so that it means the same as the first sentence. Use short forms (I've), not full forms (I have) where possible.

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She'd started her essay at two o'clock that afternoon. She was still writing her essay.
She

. (since)

It'd started raining two weeks earlier. It was still raining.
It

. (two weeks)

He'd moved to Spain in 2009. He was still living in Spain.
He

. (since 2009)

They'd started cooking at 8 a.m. They were still cooking at midday.
They

. (all morning)