ENGLISH NOTE 11
PAST PERFECT CONTINUOUS
When an action continued to take place during a specified period in the past , we use past perfect continuous tense. That action no longer continues now. If it continues , we use present perfect continuous. Have you got the difference ? Now go through the following examples.
During my twenties, I had been playing lots of tennis.
What does it mean ? When you were young and around twenty , you used to play tennis. Now you are not playing the game.
Take this sentence,
Since the age of twenty , I have been playing tennis.
In this case, you continue to play the game. So you are using present perfect continuous tense.
Have you understood the difference ?
When you use past perfect continuous tense, the entire action takes place during a past interval .
The pattern would be
Subject+ had + been + verb in gerund form.
More examples of past perfect continuous .
1. I had been slogging away
in this office for ten years before I started my own business.
2. She had been taking keen interest in the activities of our housing society before she was
hospitalized .
3. Children had been playing from morning till their parents took them back.
4. The previous government had been continuing in their mediocre governance till the elections.
Sayee Jayaraman
17/ 02/2015
PAST PERFECT CONTINUOUS
When an action continued to take place during a specified period in the past , we use past perfect continuous tense. That action no longer continues now. If it continues , we use present perfect continuous. Have you got the difference ? Now go through the following examples.
During my twenties, I had been playing lots of tennis.
What does it mean ? When you were young and around twenty , you used to play tennis. Now you are not playing the game.
Take this sentence,
Since the age of twenty , I have been playing tennis.
In this case, you continue to play the game. So you are using present perfect continuous tense.
Have you understood the difference ?
When you use past perfect continuous tense, the entire action takes place during a past interval .
The pattern would be
Subject+ had + been + verb in gerund form.
More examples of past perfect continuous .
1. I had been slogging away
in this office for ten years before I started my own business.
2. She had been taking keen interest in the activities of our housing society before she was
hospitalized .
3. Children had been playing from morning till their parents took them back.
4. The previous government had been continuing in their mediocre governance till the elections.
Sayee Jayaraman
17/ 02/2015
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