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.)

Complete the conversations with the past perfect continuous form of the verbs in brackets. Use British English spelling and short forms (I've), not full forms (I have).

Question: 1 /

You scored 0 out of

A Where was this photo taken? You look exhausted.
B I was. I

(travel) for days. I'd just arrived in Nepal from the south of India, by bus.

A I saw you yesterday coming out of that new clothes shop.
B That's right. I

(look) at suits. I need a new one.

A How's your dad?
B Much better, thanks. He

(not / take) his medicine, unfortunately.

A Was Alice OK yesterday?
B Not really. Why?
A She looked upset.

(she / cry)?