Past Perfect and Past Perfect Progressive

Past Perfect and Past Perfect Progressive

Past Perfect

The past perfect is a verb tense which is used to show that an action took place once or many times before another point in the past.

Past Perfect Forms

• The past perfect is formed using had + past participle. Questions are indicated by inverting the subject and had. Negatives are made with not:

• Affirmative: You had studied English before you moved to New York.

• Question: Had you studied English before you moved to New York?

• Negative: You had not studied English before you moved to New York.

Completed action before something in the past

• The past perfect expresses the idea that something occurred before another action in the past. It can also show that something happened before a specific time in the past:

• I had never seen such a beautiful beach before I went to Kauai.

• I did not have any money because I had lost my wallet.

• Tony knew Istanbul so well because he had visited the city several times.

Duration Before Something in the Past (Non-Continuous Verbs)

• With non-continuous verbs and some non-continuous uses of mixed verbs, we use the past perfect to show that something started in the past and continued up until another action in the past:

• We had had that car for ten years before it broke down.

• By the time Alex finished his studies, he had been in London for over eight years.

• They felt bad about selling the house because they had owned it for more than forty years.

Past Perfect Continuous

The past perfect continuous is a verb tense that indicates something that began in the past, continued in the past, and also ended at a defined point in the past.

The past perfect continuous tense is constructed using:

Subject + had been + verb + (-ing) + complement

Examples:

• He had been drinking milk out the carton when Mom walked into the kitchen.

• I had been working at the company for five years when I got the promotion.

When, for, since, and before are words that you may see used alongside the past perfect continuous tense:

• Martha had been walking three miles a day before she broke her leg.

• The program that was terminated had been working well since 1945.

• Cathy had been playing the piano for 35 years when she was finally asked to do a solo with the local orchestra.

Negative form: Subject + had not been + verb + (-ing)

• He had not been talking.

• She had not been crying.

• They had not been running.

• They hadn't been running.

Interrogative form: Had + subject + been + verb + (-ing)

• Had the pilot been drinking before the crash?

• Had he been talking?

• Had they been eating?

Difference between past perfect continuous and past continuous tenses

Both past continuous and past perfect continuous tenses can be used to talk about actions or situations that were in progress at a certain point of time in the past. While the past continuous merely shows continuity, the past perfect continuous tense also puts an emphasis on the idea of duration. It is mainly used to indicate the duration of a past activity or state.