Page 70 - New Grammar with a Smile 7

Past Perfect Continuous Tense

Uses

We use the past perfect continuous tense to

1. talk about an action that started at a definite time in the past and continued up
to that point and was in progress at that moment or had very recently finished.
For example,

y Della was upset when she met us because it had been raining all day and she
had missed her football practice.

y She was very sleepy when we met her because she had been keeping awake the
previous night.

Structure

Affirmative Negative Interrogative

I had been singing. I had not been singing. Had I been singing?

You had been singing. You had not been singing. Had you been singing?

He had been singing. He had not been singing. Had he been singing?

She had been singing She had not been singing. Had she been singing?

It had been singing. It had not been singing. Had it been singing?

We had been singing. We had not been singing. Had we been singing?

They had been singing. They had not been singing. Had they been singing?

I. Fill in the blanks with the past perfect continuous form of the verbs in
the brackets.

1. She (read) before you entered.

2. it (rain) continuously for hours?

3. We (practise) tennis for an hour when it began to rain.

4. I (study) English when Mr Naidu came to see me.
5. His knees and hands were very dirty. He (play) in
the garden.

6. I (drive) the car for five years when I decided to sell it.

7. We were very tired. We (travel) for about sixteen hours.

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