Past Perfect vs Past Perfect Continuous

Exercises

Explanation

The essential distinction is:

• Past Perfect → emphasises a completed action or result

• Past Perfect Continuous → emphasises the duration or ongoing nature of an action

1. Past Perfect – Form and Meaning

Form: had + past participle (V3)

Meaning

We use the Past Perfect to describe an action that was fully completed before another event or time in the past. It helps us show which event happened first.

Examples

• I had finished the report before the manager checked it.

• She had watered the plants before the rain started.

• They had never tried Greek food before they visited Athens.

Questions: Had + subject + V3?

• Had you cleaned the kitchen before they arrived?

Negative: had not (hadn’t) + V3

• I hadn’t heard the news before you told me.

2. Past Perfect Continuous – Form and Meaning

Form: had been + verb-ing

Meaning

We use the Past Perfect Continuous to highlight that an action was in progress for a period of time before another event.
It often explains background activity, duration, or the cause of a past situation.

Examples

• She had been practising the piano for hours before the concert began.

• They had been walking around the city all afternoon before they sat down to rest.

• He was exhausted because he had been cleaning the house all morning.

Questions: Had + subject + been + verb-ing?

• Had you been studying long before the test started?

Negative: had not (hadn’t) been + verb-ing

• They hadn’t been waiting very long before the doors opened.

3. When Do We Use Each Tense?

A. Past Perfect → completed action

Use it when the focus is on the result, the completion, or the action that simply happened first.

• She had saved enough money before she bought the ticket.

• I had finished dinner before the phone rang

B. Past Perfect Continuous → long or ongoing action

Use it when the focus is on duration or how long something continued before the second event.

• She had been writing emails all morning before the meeting began.

• The children had been jumping on the trampoline before it started raining.

4. Stative Verbs: Important Rule

Some verbs describe states, not actions, so they cannot be used in continuous forms. With these verbs, we use the Past Perfect rather than the Past Perfect Continuous.

Correct vs. Incorrect

• Correct: I had known about the plan for months.
  Incorrect: I had been knowing…

• Correct: They had owned that shop for decades before they sold it.
  Incorrect:They had been owning…

Common stative verbs

know, believe, like, love, hate, want, need, understand, remember, belong, own, see, hear, appear, seem

5. Time Expressions for Both Tenses

These expressions often signal that an earlier action happened or continued before another past event:

• before

• when

• by / by the time

• since

• for

• until / till

• already

• just

Examples

• By the time we reached the station, the train had left.

• She had been staying with her relatives since June before she returned home.

• He hadn’t been sleeping well until he changed his schedule.

6. Quick Comparison Table

7. Summary

• Use Past Perfect to show what happened first or what was completed before another past event.

• Use Past Perfect Continuous to show how long something had been happening or to explain a cause in the past.

Mastering these two tenses helps you describe past events more precisely and tell clearer, more detailed stories.