Tenses · CEFR C1 · Fluent
Past Perfect Continuous — English tenses
Something that had been going on for a while before another past moment.
The shape
had been + verb-ing
Say how long something had been going on before something else.
In Hindi
बीते किसी पल से पहले, काफ़ी समय से जो चल रहा था।
CoCap explains every structure in both languages, because a rule you understand in Hindi is a rule you can use in English.
The mistake to fix first
The sentence Indian-English speakers actually produce, and the reason it is wrong.
| Commonly said | Correct English |
|---|---|
I had been worked there for years. | I had been working there for years. After "had been" the verb takes -ing. |
Learn these first
These come first. The rest of this makes more sense once they are automatic.
Questions people ask
- What is the past perfect continuous used for?
- Something that had been going on for a while before another past moment. In practice: say how long something had been going on before something else.
- How do you form the past perfect continuous?
- had been + verb-ing.
- What is the most common mistake with the past perfect continuous?
- Saying “I had been worked there for years.” instead of “I had been working there for years.”. After "had been" the verb takes -ing.
Where past perfect continuous fits
Where this structure sits in the ladder, and what surrounds it.
Past Perfect Continuous is a CEFR C1 structure — the fluent band — and it belongs to tenses. CoCap’s syllabus files every structure this way so you can learn in order instead of jumping between whatever a search happened to return.
Reading it is not the same as saying it.
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