Learn English Tenses: PAST PERFECT CONTINUOUS

Welcome to this class on the past perfect continuous tense, which is also called the

past perfect progressive tense. Now, this class is part of a series created by www.engvid.com

to help you use the different English verb tenses and to communicate more effectively

in English, okay? Now, this tense is an advanced tense, and we use it to talk about the past

in a lot of interesting ways, and you'll see what they are. But most of all, you can learn

it easily and naturally, and I think you will be using it that way by the end of this class.

So, are you ready? Let's get started.

So, the past perfect continuous tense, which is what I'm going to call it. Every time,

I'm not going to say both names, okay? I'll just say one name. So, the past perfect continuous

tense is used to talk about something that started in the past and continued in the past,

but everything is in the past. You also know that because it has the word "past" in it,

so it's about the past, and it has the word "continuous" in it, which mean something continued,

right? So, that's a big clue. But let's understand it a little bit better by looking at some

examples.

So, we can use this tense to talk about something that had been happening in the past. For example,

let's look at the timeline. This is now, and this is the past. So, if I talk about this

period, from the first X to the second X, I could say, "I had been" - during, sorry,

during that period, "I had been living in Florida", right? During this period, from

this time to this time, everything in the past, I had been living in Florida.

Or, I can also use it to describe something that had been happening and then something

else happened. For example, I could say, "I had been living in Florida before I moved

to California". So, let's say that at this point, I moved to California, right? But before

that, I had been living in Florida. Okay? And there is a reason, which you will understand

as we go forward, why we're using that continuous form, alright? So, that's some basic idea

of how it's being used.

Now, let's look at the structure a little bit. So basically, we take the subject, I,

You, We, They, He, She, or It, we add "had been" and then we take the verb and add -ing.

We use the continuous form. For example, "I had been living Florida." "I had been working

hard in Florida." "I had been saving a lot of money." Why? Because I was planning to

move to California, okay? So, you could use all of these. I had been living, I had been

working hard, I had been saving, okay? So, this is the past perfect continuous tense.

Now, let's look at when we use the past perfect continuous tense. So, we can use it to talk

about a past activity that had been happening, okay? Just that, that's one way. For example,

we could say: It had been snowing all week. We're just saying that this activity that

started in the past continued in the past, and which part is the past perfect continuous?

Here, "It had been snowing" all week, alright? We can use it like that.

Now, another way. We can use it to describe an activity in the past that had been happening

before another activity happened. So, another activity happened and our past perfect continuous

activity had been happening, okay? It had been happening before another activity happened.

So, let's look at the example: We had been playing golf before it started to rain. So,

this part, "had been playing", is our past perfect continuous tense. So, we had been

playing, and then it started to rain. "Started" is not past perfect continuous, that's just

past simple. But this part show us that this activity had been happening until this one

happened. Alright.

We can also use this tense to talk about a past activity or action that had been happening

and we want to say the duration, or how long it had been happening. For example: They had

been working on that project for six months. Or: They had been working on that project

since January. Okay? So, "had been working", this is our past perfect continuous, and how

do we know the duration or how long? With these key words, which are often used with

this tense. They had been working on that project for six months, or the other word.

They had been working on that project since January. These are very common words that

you will see being used with this tense. Alright.

Next, we can use it to describe activities that had been happening in the past, and they

had some kind of pattern or routine. For example: We had been going to the gym regularly. Okay?

So here, "had been going". Maybe people are telling you that because they want to tell

you we had been going to the gym regularly before it closed. Now, we have to find a new

gym. Okay? So, that's one way to describe some sort of a regular pattern that had been

going on in the past. Okay? Are you with me? You've got it.

Next, we can also use it to describe an activity that had been happening, plus the reason or

cause for that. For example, we can connect it to a cause. We could say: She was tired

- why? - because she had been studying all night. So, this "had been studying", right,

this is our tense. But we say - we're connecting it to cause. She was tired because she had

been studying. She was exhausted because she had been studying. She was sleepy because

she had been studying. Okay? So sometimes, this tense is used to give us a cause or sometimes

it can be a result. Alright?

And what's really important is not just when to use it, which is what we looked at so far,

but also when not to use it. So, as in many of our continuous verbs, we cannot use some

stative verbs with this tense. With some continuous tenses, you cannot use any of the stative

verbs, or only in a particular way. In this case, we can't use some of them or most of

them with this tense. Now, what is a stative verb? Remember in English, there are two kinds

of verbs. There are the action verbs like run, eat, jump. And there are the stative

verbs, which describe a state or a condition. For example, they could be mental states.

I believe, I know, I understand. Or emotional states, like I love, I hate, I like, I dislike.

These are examples of stative verbs, and you will see a long list in any grammar book or

if you check online, and with these stative verbs, we should not be using these verbs

in the past perfect continuous tense, alright? So, this is when to use the tense and also

when not to use it.

Now, let's look at the structure of the past perfect continuous tense. So, I've divided

the board into three parts for a positive sentence, a negative sentence, and a question.

So, let's start with the first one. In a positive sentence, what we basically do is we take

the subject + "had been" + the verb + -ing. Let's look at an example. So, we take the

subject, subject could be one of these: I, You, We, They, He, She, or It. Then we add

"had been", then we add the verb, in this case, "work", + -ing. Okay? So, say it after

me: I had been working. You had been working. We had been working. They had been working.

He had been working. She had been working, and It had been working. Okay? Good. So, you've

just used this tense, good for you!

Next, let's look at what happens when we want to make a negative sentence, then basically

we're adding the word "not", okay? This is the only change here, so we could say, "I

had not been working", that's completely correct, but it's a little more formal, alright? So,

in regular conversation, we would probably say, "I hadn't been working". "Hadn't" is

the contraction or the short form of the two words "had" + "not". So basically, we cancelled

this o, we added an apostrophe and we shortened it, okay? We'll be looking more at contractions

in a few minutes. So: I hadn't been working. You hadn't been working. We hadn't been working.

The same thing, okay? They hadn't been working. He hadn't been working. She hadn't been working.

It hadn't been working. It meaning maybe the computer or the phone or something else, okay?

Next, how do we form a question? Well, we have to change the order around a little bit.

So, we start with "had" and then the subject, and then "been" + the verb + -ing. So, we

could say, "Had you been working at that time?" Had they been working? Had she been working?

Okay? So, just change the order, alright, instead of "had been", we have to say "had",

plus the subject, and then "been", okay? So also remember, you can add question words,

right? Who, what, when, where, why, how, these are our question words, generally.

So, if you need to add a question word before that, then keep this same structure and just

put this first. So, for example, you could say: Where - sorry, where had you been working?

Alright? Why had you been working? How long had you been working? Alright? So, if you're

going to use one of those question words, put it just before, and then continue with

the same structure. And that's basically how you form sentences and questions in the past

perfect continuous tense.

Now, let's look at how we form contractions using the past perfect continuous tense. So

basically, contractions, which are those shortened forms like, instead of "I had not", we say

"I hadn't", and so on. We use these more in conversation and informal writing. We do not

use them so much in formal business writing or academic writing, okay? So, keep that in

mind as we learn these.

So, let's take an example, first, of the positive sentence. That can also be shortened or contracted.

Let's look at how. So, "I had been calling", this is the full form. The short part of that,

the contraction would be, "I'd been". So, how did we get this "I'd"? We basically took

"I had" and we cancelled the part of it and added an apostrophe in place of where we removed

or took out some letters. So, "I had been" becomes "I'd been". Now, when you contract

it like that, it's also very important to pronounce it correctly, because if you don't

and if we don't hear that "d" sound at the end, then somebody else might think that your

grammar is incorrect, okay? So that's why we're going to also practice the pronunciation

after we look at the form and spelling of the contraction.

So, for the positive form, "I had been" becomes "I'd been". For the negative form, "I had

not been calling", that becomes "I hadn't been", as we saw earlier. So, "I hadn't",

right? So, what happened? We took "had not", we got rid of the o here, we added an apostrophe

and we joined these two words. So, "I had not been" becomes "I hadn't been". Again,

it's important to say the endings of these words.

So now, let's practice pronouncing this tense with lots of different variations and different

verbs, okay? So, you will feel so much more comfortable actually saying it and using it

once we reach the end of it here. So, repeat after me, and try to pay attention to each

sound: I'd been calling. You'd been writing. We'd been cooking. They'd been watching. He'd

been studying. And, she'd been reading. So, we want to hear that "d" sound at the end,

she'd, okay?

Now, I didn't put "It". Sometimes, you will hear people saying that, "It'd been a long

time", but it's a little bit tricky to say, and so if it's not clear, sometimes it's better

to kind of avoid it and just say "It had been" from your side, but you can understand and

you should know that people might use that form. It's actually used a lot more in the

negative form, but let's look at some basic negative forms first.

So, repeat after me again: I hadn't been checking. You hadn't been playing. We hadn't been talking.

They hadn't been going. He hadn't been attending. And the last one: She hadn't been listening.

Not like you, you were listening, okay? So, this is how we contract and pronounce these

contractions in the past perfect continuous tense.

Now, let's look at some spelling changes we need to make when using this tense. So, these

changes are made in the base form of the verb, when we add the -ing, sometimes we need to

change the spelling. So, let's look at what those changes are.

So, for most verbs, we just need to add -ing. For example, "help" becomes "helping". Dream

- dreaming. Right? All we did is we added -ing, and that will be the case for most verbs,

but not all verbs, okay? So, sometimes, for verbs ending in e, there what we do is we

have to drop the e, right, cancel the e and then add the -ing. For example, the verb "hire",

so what do we do? We cancel the e and make it "hiring". What does it mean to hire someone?

To give someone a job, alright? Or the verb "make" becomes "making". Again, we got rid

of this e and we added -ing. Good.

Now, for verbs that end in ie, what we need to do is to change the ie to a y. Let me show

you why. So, "die" becomes "dying". So, we need to cancel this, right? Cancel the ie

and change it to a y and then add -ing. Alright? So, "die" becomes "dying". "Tie" becomes "tying".

Good.

And then, in some cases, for verbs ending in c-v-c, what do I mean by that? Consonant,

vowel, consonant. So then, we need to double the last letter. Let me show you what I mean.

You look at the verb, let's take this verb "swim". You look at the verb from the end.

So, we see consonant, vowel, consonant. Remember, a vowel is A, E, I, O, or U, and all the other

letters in English are consonants. So, if you see this pattern, not all the time but

most of the time, if you look at the verb from the end and you see consonant, vowel,

consonant, then we need to, very often, double that last letter. So, "swim" becomes "swimming".

"Control", see here? C-v-c, right, looking this way? "Control" becomes "controlling",

alright?

So, these are the basic changes that you need to keep in mind. Of course, English as a lot

of variations in spelling and sometimes, you're going to have several exceptions, which you

will pick up as you go along.

Now, let's look at how to give a short, easy answer when someone asks you a question using

this tense. So, suppose someone says, "Had he been waiting for a long time?" So, this

is the past perfect continuous tense, right? But instead of repeating everything again,

we can just say, "Yes, he had", or "No, he hadn't". Let's go over that again. Someone

asks, "Had he been waiting for a long time?" So, you say, "Yes, he had". You take that

from here, from the question itself, the question begins with "had", and your answer will include

some form of "had". So, "Had he been waiting?" "Yes, he had", or "No, he hadn't". Alright?

Now, what's important here, we do use the contraction, but in this one, in the short

answer, in the positive short answer, we do not use a contraction. You cannot use a contraction.

So, in other words, you can't say "Yes, he'd." That's not possible, okay? You have to say,

"Yes, he had" or "No, he hadn't." Good.

Let's look at another one: Had you been considering that offer? Let's say this was a job offer

or something else, okay? Had you been considering that offer? What does "considering" mean?

Thinking about it, okay? Alright. So, again, it starts with "had", so your answer will

include some form of "had". So, "Had you been considering it?" "Yes, I had", or "No, I hadn't".

Again, no contraction possible in the positive answer.

Next: Had they been planning a trip? What can you say? "Yes, they had", or "No, they

hadn't". Okay? Again, no contraction possible in that positive response. Okay? And this

is usually in conversational English. We use a lot of these short answers because it saves

time and you don't need to repeat the entire information that was in the question, okay?

So, if I asked you, for example, "Had you been planning to study this tense today?"

You could say either one of these. Yes, I had, or No, I hadn't, but I'm so glad I did!

Okay.

Now, let's do some practice together using the past perfect continuous tense. So, we'll

make some positive sentences, some negative sentences, and some questions, okay?

So, let's start with number one: I __________ (think) of ordering pizza. So, I've given

you the verb. Now, we're going to change that into the past perfect continuous. So, I, what?

The verb is "think", then we have to say "I had been thinking", right? I had been thinking

of ordering pizza. Okay? Good. Now here, I wrote the full form. We might not always use

the full form. We could also use the contraction. Alright.

Number two: He ___________ (hope) to get a promotion. What is a promotion? It means a

higher position at work, okay, in your job. So, how would we change that into the past

perfect continuous? He - yes, "had been hoping". Now, let's contract it. So then, we would

say, "He'd been hoping", right? He had been hoping, or he'd, he'd been hoping to get a

promotion, alright? You can say that too, and definitely in more informal conversation.

Alright.

Number three: They __________ (look) for the key. This time, let's say the full form, not

the contraction. "They had been" - what? "Look" becomes "looking", right? They had been looking

for the key, good. There is a g here, okay? Remember that. Good.

Number four: She ___________ (miss) her family. This time, let's shorten it. So, what would

it be? "She'd been missing her family." Okay? Very good.

Number five: Jose ___________ (prepare) for his exam. Let's use the full form. "Jose had

been preparing for his exam." Okay? You've got it, very good! Alright.

Now, let's make them negative. He __________ (exercise) regularly. So, we want to say he

didn't do that. So, how can we say that? "He hadn't been exercising regularly", okay? He

had not been exercising regularly, or he hadn't been exercising regularly. Good. That's the

basic format. Let's apply it now.

Number seven: We _________ (check) our voicemail. Make it negative. "We hadn't been checking

our voicemail." We hadn't been checking our voicemail. Alright?

Number eight: I __________ (sleep) well. Make it negative and past perfect continuous. "I

hadn't been sleeping well." I hadn't been sleeping well. Okay? Excellent.

Now, for the last two, we're going to make them into questions. Are you ready?

Had _________ (he, feel) unwell? So, what would we say, in what order? "Had he been

feeling unwell? Had he been feeling unwell? Okay? Good.

And the last one: Had __________ (you, text) each other? "Text" today is very much used

as a verb, so how would we change that? "Had you been texting each other?" Okay? Had you

been texting each other? Okay?

That's it, now you've practiced some positive sentences, some negative sentences, some questions,

and I hope you're feeling a lot more confident about using this tense correctly and easily.

Now, let's look at some common mistakes that are sometimes made when using the past perfect

continuous tense, and let's see how we can fix them.

So, the first mistake that's sometimes made is that the wrong tense is actually used or

chosen. So, let me give you a situation. Suppose John was looking for a job and then he found

one, okay? So, how would we convey that information in English? Which tense would we use? I'll

read two of the possibilities to you. "John has been looking for a job", or "John had

been looking for a job". Think about it for a second. So, in this case, the correct answer

is the second one, which is in fact, our tense, the past perfect continuous. "Had been looking".

Why? Because this describes a situation where John was doing something, it continued for

some time and then it stopped, because he found a job. So, we can use correctly the

past perfect continuous. John had been looking for a job in the past. He started looking,

he was looking and looking and looking, and then he stopped because he found a job, right?

So, that is the perfect use of our tense that we've been learning. But sometimes, by mistake,

students mix that up with another tense, which is this one: John has been looking for a job.

Do you remember which tense that is? That's the present perfect continuous tense. So,

"John has been looking for a job" means what? It means that he started looking and he's

still looking. But that's not the situation here, right? John found one, so he finished

looking. So, this was the correct choice here, but sometimes, students confuse the present

perfect continuous with the past perfect continuous. So, make sure that you understand these two

tenses clearly, understand the differences, and that you choose the past perfect continuous

at the right time, okay.

The next mistake with this tense is the use of the stative verb. As I mentioned, very

often and most of the time, we do not use stative verbs with this tense. For example,

these are all wrong, by the way, okay? Most of these things here are wrong, so let's look

at what's wrong with them. "They had been knowing each other for many years." What's

wrong with that? It's the fact that a stative verb is being used. Which stative verb? The

verb "know". Okay? We cannot use that in the continuous form. So, we would have to not

use this tense. There is no way we can continue to use the past perfect continuous with this

verb. You just can't use it, because there is no way to correctly say "knowing each other"

as a verb. So here, we would have to say, "They had", for example, "known", they had

known each other for many years, which is just the past perfect and not the past perfect

continuous, alright? So, if you have a stative verb to use in this kind of context of a past

action, you're probably going to have to switch back to the past perfect tense and not the

continuous one. Alright?

Next, spelling mistakes. These are quite common. Let's look at the first one: She had'nt been

attending classes." So, look carefully at the board and tell me, where's the spelling

mistake? I'll give you a clue: it's in the contraction. Here, right? So, the apostrophe

is in the wrong place. It should be, "She hadn't" "hadn't been attending", and the apostrophe

should be where the o was removed and not here, okay? Alright.

The next one, also a spelling mistake: The traffic hadn't been moveing. What's wrong

there? This time, the contraction is okay, but the verb itself is wrong when we add -ing.

Why? Do you remember the rule? We had some of these examples in our practice, in fact.

So, how do we fix it? We cancel this e, alright? So, when the base form of the verb ends with

an e, like the verb "move", we cancel the e and we add -ing. So, the correct spelling

would be "moving", okay? Without the e. The traffic hadn't been moving, it was stuck.

Alright.

The next one, also a spelling mistake: They had been chating. That's what the person wanted

to say. They had been chatting for a long time, or they had been chatting for an hour,

but the spelling says "chating" right now, and that's incorrect, because let's look at

our base verb, okay, "chat". So, we have consonant, vowel, consonant, and that means that, in

this case, we double the last letter. And did the student do that? No, okay? So, let's

fix it. "They had been chatting." Okay? They had been chatting for a long time, or chatting.

That's another way to pronounce it, okay?

Next, sometimes a lot of mistakes are made with these words, "since" and "for". Let's

look at a mistake right now: The police had been looking for him since two months. So,

that is completely wrong. You don't want to make that mistake, not in an exam, not while

speaking, not while writing a business letter, in all situations, okay? Because this not

a good mistake to make, it's pretty basic mistake. So, we should say, in this case,

"The police had been looking for him for two months." Why? Because we use "for" + the period

of time. And we use "since" + a point in time. Okay? So, we could say, "since January 15th"

or "since January", but "for two months", "for six months", like that, okay?

So, these are some of the common mistakes to avoid when using this tense.

So, to review now. You know the past perfect continuous tense when you know when to use

it, when not to use it, and how to use it, all of which we have covered in this class.

And of course, you can go back, you can watch any particular area that you want to review,

and that's always a good idea, okay? But what does it mean to actually know how to use it?

It means to be able to make a positive sentence, a negative sentence, and a question, right?

For example: They had been learning English. The negative: They hadn't been learning English.

The question: Had they been learning English? Alright?

And also, you should be able to add those question words when necessary, before the

question. For example: Where had they been learning English? How long had they been learning

English? Why had they been learning English? Okay? So, when you can do that comfortably

and move between positive, negative, questions, then you've got it.

And if you have reached this stage and you are learning the past perfect continuous tense

and you watched this class all the way through, I know that you are a serious learner and

you are someone who achieves your goals in life. I have been teaching for thirty years,

and I know that people who make it to this stage are winners, and you are one of them!

Congratulations, really!

Now, when you're ready, remember this is a series, so go on to watch the next video in

the series so that you can continue to improve. And if you'd like to do some more practice,

then you can do a quiz on www.engvid.com . Thanks very much for watching, and all the best with

your English.