Past Perfect Continuous

When you can use Past Perfect Continuous

• You use Past Perfect Continuous to emphasize the duration of past action that started and finished in the past BEFORE another past action.
  • David had been working as a manager for 3 years before he resigned.
    /Past action that started before another past action — David had been working as a manager;
    emphasis on duration — for 3 years;
    another past action — he resigned/
  • They had been sunbathing for two hours before the sun disappeared.
    /Past action that started before another past action — they had been sunbathing;
    emphasis on duration — for two hours;
    another past action — the sun disappeared/
  • We had been painting the fence for an hour before it started to rain.
    /Past action that started before another past action — we had been painting the fence;
    emphasis on duration — for an hour;
    another past action — it started to rain/
• You use Past Perfect Continuous for long past action that had visible result in the past.
  • We were cheerful because we had been watching a comedy. /Long past action — we had been watching a comedy visible result in the past — we were cheerful/
  • My dog got wet because it had been running in the rain. /Long past action — my dog had been running in the rain visible result in the past — my dog got wet/
  • I finished my report on time because I had been working on it the whole night. /Long past action — I had been working on my report the whole night visible result in the past — I finished my report on time/
  • When we came to tell Allie the truth, she had known it for a long time. /not she had been knowing it for a long time; know is a state verb and can not be used in Past Perfect Continuous/
  Stative verbs (e.g. know, see, have, understand, etc) can not be used in Past Perfect Continuous. In this case, you should use Past Perfect.

Time markers in Past Perfect Continuous

How to build Past Perfect Continuous

Spelling of the verbs with ending -ing