The third sentence therefore seems possible. However Michael Swan notes (Practical English Usage, 2005.522) "present and past tenses are also occasionally found". The time period extends up to some past time already referred to. I had been working there since I graduated from school. The past perfect simple focuses more on the completion or the result than the action itself. The past perfect helps talk about something that happened before a certain point in the past, whereas the past perfect continuous is used to talk about. When I found Susie, I could see that she had been crying. The past perfect continuous focuses more on the action itself. At that time I had been studying in London for three years. The time period extends up to the moment of speaking. Uses The past perfect continuous tense is used to talk about longer actions or situations which had continued up to the past moment that we are thinking about. I have been working there since I graduated from school. We normally use since for a time period starting at one point in time and continuing up to another the verb is normally present or past perfect. Past continuous lays emphasis on the interrupted actions, whereas past perfect continuous lays emphasis on a duration of time before something in the past. The past perfect simple suggests something more permanent than the past perfect continuous, which can imply that something is temporary. The first two are fine the third is more doubtful. I was working there since I graduated from school. Try some other exercises about the past perfect continuous here.Past perfect forms, continuous and non-continuous, are appropriate only if there is some implied or explicit reference to one action starting before a past time.ĭo you really expect me to believe that you were running for twenty minutes flat yesterday?ĭo you really expect me to believe that you had been running for twenty minutes flat when you passed me yesterday? I'd been working before I saw you and that's why I was really tired.Ĭlick here to download an exercise about choosing the past perfect simple or the past perfect continuous. The children had been playing and so the room was a mess!.(The rain had finished before the time I'm describing in the past. Any action or an event that started in the recent past and express idea of completion or occurence, in relation to another event, without an exact time of. The pavement was wet, it had been raining.It's very similar to the present perfect continuous, but the action finishes before another time in the past, rather than finishing before the present. Their partner then reads the letter and ending, putting the verb in brackets into the past perfect simple or past perfect continuous as appropriate. This is usually used to show a result at a time in the past. We'd been living in Berlin for three months when we had to leave.Ģ: Something that finished just before another event in the past.I had been working on my essays the night before and I was very tired. I'd been walking for hours when I finally found the house. We use the past perfect continuous to talk about actions or events which started before a particular time in the past and were still in progress up to that time in the past: It was so difficult to get up last Monday for school.She had been working at that company for a year when she met James. The past perfect simple refers to actions that were completed while the past perfect continuous describes activities that were not completed before a point in.(We can also use the past perfect simple here, often with stative verbs.) The past perfect continuous tells us 'how long', just like the present perfect continuous, but this time the action continues up to a point in the past rather than the present. They both describe an ongoing or continuous action. Read about how to make the past perfect here.ġ: Something that started in the past and continued up to another action or time in the past. Taken at face value, the past continuous and the past perfect continuous do seem pretty similar. When should I use the Past Perfect Continuous?ĭownload this explanation in PDF here.
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