Past Perfect Continuous Tense

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.

Examples are given below.

• At that time he had been living in the garage for about two months.
• When I found John, I could see that he had been working in the garden.

Here the verbs had been living and had been working are in the past perfect continuous tense.

The form of this tense is: had + been + verb + ing form.

Grammar exercise

Change the verbs in the following sentences into the past perfect continuous tense.

1. The boys had fought for hours before the teacher came to separate them.

2. For a long time, I had planned to take a holiday.

3. My legs were stiff because I had stood still for a long time.

4. The castle had stood on the hill for several centuries.

5. The country had struggled for freedom for over 100 years.

Answers

1. The boys had been fighting for hours before the teacher came to separate them.

2. For a long time, I had been planning to take a holiday.

3. My legs were stiff because I had been standing still for a long time.

4. The castle had been standing on the hill for several centuries.

5. The country had been struggling for freedom for over 100 years.