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Foundations
The verb system
Describing and connecting
- 09 Adjectives and adverbs
- 10 Prepositions
- 11 Conjunctions
- 12 Building longer sentences
- 13 Punctuation and capital letters
Words and sounds
Practice and progress
05.08Core
Past Perfect Continuous
An action that had been going on for a while before another past moment.
The structure
Positive
Subject + had + been + V-ing
Negative
Subject + had + not + been + V-ing
Question
Had + subject + been + V-ing ?
When you use it
- To show how long something had been happening before another past event.
- To explain the cause of a past situation: The ground was wet because it had been raining.
Words that signal this tense
for three hourssince morningall daybefore that
Examples
- He had been driving for six hours before he stopped.رکنے سے پہلے وہ چھ گھنٹے سے گاڑی چلا رہا تھا۔
- They had been waiting since noon.وہ دوپہر سے انتظار کر رہے تھے۔
- She had not been feeling well for a week.اس کی طبیعت ایک ہفتے سے ٹھیک نہیں چل رہی تھی۔
- How long had you been studying there?تم وہاں کب سے پڑھ رہے تھے؟
- The road was wet because it had been raining.سڑک گیلی تھی کیونکہ بارش ہو رہی تھی۔
The mistake almost everyone makes
He was driving since morning when I met him.
He had been driving since morning when I met him.
For a duration that runs up to a past moment, use had been + -ing, not was + -ing.