Below are explanations to what is the past perfect continuous tense, and how it is made and when to use it and examples of using it.
The Past Perfect Continuous is also known as the Past Perfect Progressive because it describes a continuous action or process that was completed in the past.
We make the past perfect continuous by taking the past participle of ‘be’ and adding a verb with an ‘-ing’ ending:
I + had been + sleeping
Past Perfect Continuous: Positive form
| Subject | Past Participle of ‘be’ | Present Participle of the verb + ing |
| I
You She He It We They |
had been | sleeping
playing drinking painting snowing skiing fishing |
I had been sleeping soundly.
- You had been painting flowers.
- We had been skiing on holiday.
- It had been snowing that morning.
Past Perfect Continuous: Negative form
| Subject | Past Participle (negative) of ‘be’ | Present Participle of the verb + ing |
| I
You She He It We They |
had not been
hadn’t been (short form) |
sleeping
playing drinking painting snowing skiing fishing |
- I had not been paying attention.
- I hadn’t been paying attention.
- It had not been working for decades before they restored it.
- It hadn’t been working for decades before they restored it.
- They had not been playing near the pond that day.
- They hadn’t been playing near the pond that day.
Past Perfect Continuous and making questions
To form a question (interrogative), use the Past Participle of ‘have’ + Subject + Past Participle of ‘be’ + verb with -ing.
Past Perfect Continuous: Positive Form Questions
| Past Participle | Subject | Past Participle of ‘be’ + verb with –ing |
| Had | I
you she he it we they |
been sleeping
been playing been drinking been painting been snowing been skiing been fishing |
- Had you been waiting in line for a long time?
- Had it been raining hard?
- Had we been fishing before?
- Had I been going to school for engineering?
Past Perfect Continuous: Negative Short Form Questions
| Past Participle | Subject | Past Participle of ‘be’ + verb with –ing |
| Hadn’t | I
you she he it we they |
been sleeping
been playing been drinking been painting been snowing been skiing been fishing |
- Hadn’t I been working hard?
- Hadn’t she been staying with her friend?
- Hadn’t it been drying on the line?
- Hadn’t we been studying for hours?
Using the Past Perfect Continuous
There are two ways we use Past Perfect Continuous:
- To Show Duration Before Something in the Past
The words ‘for decades’ in the example sentence ‘It had not (hadn’t) been working for decades before they restored it’ tell us that that the action (‘working’) happened before a second action (‘restored’), which also happened in the past.
Here are some other examples:
- I had not been running for months before I joined the club.
- She had been practicing for weeks before the concert.
- They had been drinking for quite a while before the accident.
- To show a cause of something in the Past
The Past Perfect Continuous is also used to show cause and effect by adding the word ‘because’:
- She was freckled because she hadn’t been using sunscreen.
- We got the tickets because we had been persistent.
- He lost his chance because he hadn’t been paying attention.
