How do we use the Past Perfect Continuous?
How to Form the Past Perfect Continuous:
- As it is a “perfect verb form” we have to use the auxiliary “have“ plus a past participle
- It is also a “continuous verb form” so we have to use the auxiliary “be” plus a verb in the “ing” form
Combined together we get had + been + verb+ing:
Examples:
- I had been painting my house, my hair was covered in blue paint!
- When I went into my son’s room I saw that he had been crying.
- Her face was very red because she had been running.
As with the Past Perfect Simple the Past Perfect Continuous is used to talk about an action that happened before another action in the past.
- When I went into my son’s room I saw that he had been crying. … He was crying before I went into his room, when I went into his room his eyes were red and I could see that this was caused by his tears.
We use the Past Perfect Continuous when we are more interested in the action. We use the the Past Perfect Simple when it is more important to say that action is COMPLETED