Present perfect and past perfect
Past perfect continuous
contrast: past perfect continuous vs past perfect simpleb2
Past perfect simple and past perfect continuous I hadn’t seen the film before, but Ben had already seen it three times.They had always wanted to visit Australia, and finally they made it.Sara hadn’t been working there long when she was promoted.They’d been painting the room for nearly an hour when they realized they’d been using the wrong colour.We use the past perfect to show that something happened before something else in the past.For more information on forms of the past perfect (simple), see Past perfect simple.For more information on forms of the past perfect continuous, see Past perfect continuous.Past perfect simpleWe use the past perfect simple to talk about actions that were completed before another action or situation in the past. We use it to focus on the result of the action.Anna had left when we arrived.Had the meeting started by the time you got there?We usually use the past perfect simple and not the past perfect continuous when we are talking about states rather than actions, with verbs like be, have, know.We’d known each other for about five years before we became friends.Note that we usually use the past simple to refer to the more recent action.By the time we arrived at the station, the train had already left.Past perfect continuousWe use the past perfect continuous to talk about actions that continued for a period of time before another action or situation in the past. We use it to focus on the duration of the action. The 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.When I woke up, I saw that it had been raining. We often use already with the past perfect to emphasize that the action happened earlier. We also often use just to show that the action happened a very short time before.She had already been working for two hours by the time we got there.Sam had just left when we arrived.
Complete the text with the past perfect simple or past perfect continuous form of the verbs from the box. Use British English spelling and full forms (I have), not short forms (I've).
causedisappearfly (x2)stoptake offtravelwork
Question: 1 /
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In December 1945, five military planes were on a training flight after they
from a location in Florida in the US. The planes
for about an hour and they
about 300 miles when some of their equipment, which
perfectly up to that point, suddenly stopped working. Radio contact was then lost. None of the planes or crew were ever seen again. The official explanation is that before they vanished, the planes
into an area of unusual magnetic activity. It is believed that this
their equipment to stop working. The planes were flying over the Atlantic Ocean near Bermuda and the story of the Bermuda Triangle was born. By the mid-1970s, 16 more planes
in the same area. And it appears that in almost all cases, the equipment
working just before the planes disappeared.
Grammar contentsView all
Present perfect and past perfect
Quantifiers, possessives and demonstratives