- Past Perfect Continuous Tense is used to express an action which began at a certain in the past and was still continuing or had just finished at another point of time in the past (He grew thin because he had not been sleeping well for a week)
- Past Perfect Continuous Tense may be replaced by the past perfect tense. the above example may be written thus: (He grew thin because he had not slept well for a week)
- Past Perfect Tense Continuous is differentiated from past perfect tense when the former express the length of time of an action while the letter deals with what had been achieved by that action (I had been writing books all my life)
Affirmative
Subject + had + been + verb-ing
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I had been studying English
You/ we/ they had been studying English
He/ she/ my friend/ it had been eating
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Negative
Subject + had + not + been + verb-ing
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I had not been studying English
You/ we/ they had not been studying English
He/ she/ my friend/ it had not been eating
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Interrogative
Had + subject + been + verb-ing
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Had I been studying English
Had you/ we/ they been studying English
Had he/ she/ my friend/ it been eating
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Negative interrogative
Had + not + subject + been + verb-ing
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Had not I been studying English
Had not you/ we/ they been studying English
Had not he/ she/ my friend/ it been eating
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Notes:
The sorted form
I had : I’d
You had : You’d
We had : We’d
They had : They’d
He had : He’d
She had : She’d
Had not : hadn’t
Had not : hadn’t
Past Perfect
Continuous Tense
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Question
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Short Answer
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Complete Answer
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Had you been eating?
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Yes I had
No, I had not
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Yes I had been eating
No, I had not been eating
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Had he been studying English?
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Yes he had
No, he had not
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Yes he had been studying English
No, he had not been studying
English
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