Past Perfect Continuous Tense
How long something had been going on before something else happened in the past.
It's the present perfect continuous, moved back into the past. "I've been waiting for an hour" (now) becomes "I'd been waiting for an hour" (back then).
අතීතයේ යම් මොහොතකට කලින් ඉඳන් ඒ මොහොත වෙනකම් කරගෙන ගිය දෙයක් ගැන කියන්න අපි past perfect continuous පාවිච්චි කරනවා. "බස් එක එද්දි අපි පැයක් තිස්සේ බලාගෙන හිටියා" වගේ.
How to make it
had been is the same for every subject.
| Example | |
|---|---|
| Positive | They'd (= they had) been working. |
| Question | Had they been working? |
| Negative | They hadn't been working. |
When do we use it?
1. How long, before something happened
How long
- We'd been trying to call you for an hour when you finally answered.
- They had been studying English for three years before they moved to the UK.
- Had you been waiting long before the taxi came?
2. Explaining how things looked in the past
The reason
- She was tired because she'd been working all day.
- The roads were flooded because it had been raining for hours.
- His clothes were dirty because he'd been playing in the mud.
3. Reporting what someone said
Reported speech
- "I was working late." → He said he had been working late.
Quick check
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He for six hours when he finally stopped for tea.
Her eyes were red. She .
I had been working there three years when I got promoted.
We each other for years before we started the business.
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