Past Perfect Continuous Tense

It is used to express a continued or ongoing action that started in past and continued until sometime in past.

There will be a time reference, such as “since 1989, for two hours etc”.

Affirmative Sentences

Rule 1: Subject + had been + (1st Form of Verb + ing) + Object + Time reference (See Examples 1,2,3)

Rule 2: Use 'for' or 'since' for showing time reference. 'Since' is for 'Point of Time'. eg. since Tuesday, since 1998, since morning, since 4 o'clock etc.

Rule 3: Use 'for' for 'Period of Time'. eg. for two days, for three months, for five hours etc.

Examples:
1. Seema had been playing with her dolls since morning.
2. They had been waiting for me for five hours.
3. Those women had been washing their clothes for three hours.

Negative Sentences

Rule : Subject + had + not + been + (1st Form of Verb + ing) + Object + Time Reference

Examples:
1. She had not been reading for two days.
2. Rahul had not been teaching me for two years.
3. I had not been suffering from fever since Monday.

Interrogative Sentences

Rule 1: Had + Subject + been + (1st Form of Verb + ing) + Object + Time reference
(See Examples 1, 2)

Rule 2: When/Why/What/Where + had + Subject + been + (1st Form of Verb + ing) + Object + Time reference (See Example 4)

Rule 3: How much/How many/Whose/Which also used with their related nouns.(See Example 3)

Rule 4: Interrogative negative sentences are just like Interrogative affirmative sentences with only use of not after the subject.
Had + subject + not + been + (1st form of verb + ing) + Object + Time Reference
(See example 2)

Rule 5: Must put Question Mark (?) at the end of a sentence.

Examples:
1. Had he been doing his work for three hours ?
2. Had they not been helping me for many years ?
3. How many players had been playing the match since morning ?
4. Why had the dogs been running for an year ?

Tenses - English to English Translation

Simple Tense

Present Simple Tense

Past Simple Tense

Future Simple Tense

Continuous Tense

Present Continuous Tense

Past Continuous Tense

Future Continuous Tense

Perfect Tense

Present Perfect Tense

Past Perfect Tense