The Past Perfect Continuous
We use the past perfect continuous when there are 2 actions in the past. The first action lasted a long time and we use the past perfect continuous to describe it. The action stops when the second action takes place. For the second action we use the past simple.
I had been living in Italy for 3 years before I went to Rome.
I‘d been watching television for half an hour when I fell asleep.
Look at the construction:
|
Subject |
had |
been |
-ing form of verb |
|
|
I |
had |
been |
sleeping |
for 2 hours when the phone rang.
|
|
They |
had |
been |
waiting |
for an hour before she arrived.
|
Look at the question form:
|
Question word |
Auxiliary |
Subject |
Verb |
|
|
How long |
had |
you |
been sleeping |
when they woke you up ? |
|
I’d been sleeping for 2 hours. |
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|
How long |
had |
you |
been going out together |
before you decided to get married? |
|
We’d been going out together for 6 months. |
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