Past Perfect Simple VS Past Perfect Continuous

PRESENT PERFECT

Past and Present Tenses Timeline I have been to school

Past Present

PAST CONTINUOUS
PAST PERFECT CONTINUOUS PRESENT CONTINUOUS
I was going to school
I had been going to school I am going to school
PRESENT PERFECT CONTINUOUS
PAST PERFECT SIMPLE
I have been going to school
PRESENT SIMPLE
I had gone to school
PAST SIMPLE I go to school
I went to school

We use the past perfect to show that something happened before something else in the past.
Past Perfect tenses in general refer to an event in the past which happens before another event in
the past, where there is no time expression to make this clear.

Past Perfect Simple (I had done)

Form:

gone
I/ we/ they/ you/ he/ she/ it had ( = I’d etc, ) seen
( = he’d etc. ) finished etc.

Use:
The past perfect is used when we are talking or writing about the past and want to go back to
an earlier time.
This is usually for:
Giving information about what happened before the events of the story.
He remebered their previous meeting. She had told him her life story.
When we got home last night, we found that somebody had broken into the flat.
When Maria arrived at the party, Paul had already got home.
Explaining or commenting on something in the story ( often following because ). We
often use word like always, often, never.
Karen didn’t want to come to the cinema with us because she had already seen
the film.
I felt uneasy about him because I had seen his face somewhere before.
They met at the café in the corner. They had been meeting there for years.
The past perfect is also common:
In reported speech
We have already seen the film (direct speech with the present perfect ).
They told me they had already seen the film (reported speech with past perfect ).
With wish to express regrets
I wish I had worked harder at school.
In some conditional constructions
If I had gone to Thailand instead of Turkey I wouldn’t have met you.

Compare the past perfect (I had done ) and past simple (I did )
Was Tom at the party when you arrived? No, he had already gone home.
But Was Tom there when you arrived? Yes, but he went home soon afterwards.

Ann wasn’t at home when I phoned. She was in London.

But Ann had just got home when I phoned. She had been in London.
 Past Perfect Continuous (I had been doing )

Form:

I/ we/ you/ had (= I’d etc.) been doing

they/ he/ she/ (= he’d etc.) working
it playing etc.

Use:
We choose the past perfect continuous when we talk about activities that continued for a
time.
It had been snowing heavily and the ground was white when Jhon arrived.
After the match I had a sore throat because I had been shouting so much.
You can say that something had been happening for a period of time before something
else happened.
Our game of tennis was interrupted. We had been playing for about an hour
when it started to rain very heavily.
Ken gave up smoking ten years ago. He had been smoking for 30 years.

Compare had been doing (past perfect continuous ) and was doing ( past continuous ).
It wasn’t raining when we went out. The sun was shining. But it had been
raining, so the ground was wet.
Ann was sitting in an armchair watching television. She was tired because she
had been working very hard.

Past Perfect VS Continuous

The contrasts between past simple and past continuous can be made in past perfect tenses for
events further back in the past.
 I had been living in a bed-sitter back up to then.
While I had been talking on the phone, Jimmy had escaped.
The whole place was deserted, but it was obvious that someone had been living there. They
had been cooking in the kitchen for a start, and they hadn’t bothered to clear up the mess.