The past perfect progressive (also called past perfect continuous) is a tense of English that contains a ongoing action in the past describes. In contrast to the present perfect progressive, the action described still took place vbefore another completed event held in the past. This «other completed event» is then usually expressed in the Simple Past.
As with other progressive tenses, the German past perfect progressive has no equivalent. In this article you will therefore find simple explanations and helpful examples that will make it easier for you to form and use the past perfect progressive correctly.
present perfect progressive? Simple past? All the tenses in English can get a bit confusing. But don’t worry – on you will find an explanation for every tense!
Past Perfect Progressive Education and Rules
In general, the past perfect progressive becomes with had been and one present participle (-ing form of the verb) formed. In the following you will find out exactly what this looks like with positive statements, negative statements and questions.
The present participle is just the -ing form of a verb. In the present progressive it becomes e.g. B. used to indicate a continuous plot in the Present to describe – you are expressing that something is happening. In the past perfect progressive, on the other hand, the present participle describes a longer action in the past.
positive statements
You form positive statements in the past perfect progressive as follows: Subject + had been + present participle + object. It is important to note that this had been himself with the subject Not changes, so it always stays the same. You can see what such statements could look like in the two example sentences below:
she had been learning English for three years.
I had been going for a run every day.
So you use in both sentences had beenalthough the subject is different (she vs. I) and the present participle learning from the verb to learn such as going from the verb to go. Most of the time, however, the past perfect becomes progressive in combination with the Simple Past used. For example, the example sentences could be expanded with the Simple Past (underlined below) as follows.
she had been learning English for three years before she moved to England.
I had been going for a run every day until I broke my leg last week.
In the first example, you express that the person had studied English for three years (continuous past action) before then moving to England (closed past event). In the second sentence you say that you ran every day until you broke your leg last week.
That Simple past corresponds to the German past tense and describes a one-time short action in the past that has already ended. If you want a repetition of this tense, just read the explanation «Simple Past» again!
So you see that in the two examples everything in the pastit plays – both the ongoing action in the past perfect progressive (had been learning and had been going) as well as the subsequent, but also completed event in the Simple Past (she moved to England and I broke my leg).
Also, in the past perfect progressives are often used short forms used, which you through the merger contractions) from subject and had form You can see all possible formations in the following table:
subject
Short form with had
1st person singular
I
I’d
2nd person singular
you
you’d
3rd person singular
he/she/it
hed / she’d / it’d
1st person plural
we
we’d
2nd person plural
you
you’d
3rd person plural
they
they’d
Watch out: All those short forms that you use had can form (I’d, you’detc.) are just like the short forms With would. For example, the short form could I’d either I had or I would mean – however, which form is used should be relatively easy to recognize in the context of the sentence.
Past perfect progressive negation
You form negative statements in the past perfect progressive by simply typing between the had and the finished a not add So the sentence structure would be: Subject + had + not + finished + present participle + object. In the example sentences that you already know, it looks like this:
she had not been learning English for three years.
I had not been going for a run every day.
Instead of had been learning and had been going so you just say had not been learning or. had not been going. Since that had been with the positive statements does not change with the subject, that also remains had not been always the same for negative statements. That is why the short form hadn’t used as you can see in the examples below:
she hadn’t been learning English for three years.
I hadn’t been going for a run every day.
As is often the case in English, the short form is mainly used in spoken language – but occasionally also in more informal written texts.
Past perfect progressive questions
To form questions in the past perfect progressive, all you have to do is change the sentence structure slightly. Namely, it must be the subject after the had stand: had + subject + finished + present participle + object. The previous example sentences can therefore be rephrased into questions as follows:
had she been learning English for three years?
had I been going for a run every day?
As you can see, the subject is always in between had and finished. But if you Ask with not in the past perfect progressive, there are two different options, depending on whether you want the short form hadn’t use or not:
- without the short form: had + subject + not + finished + present participle + object
- With the short form: hadn’t + subject + finished + present participle + object
To see how these forms can be used in a sentence, see the first example sentence below in this explanation:
had she not been learning English for three years?
Hadn’t she been learning English for three years?
Past Perfect Progressive Examples
In the table you will find more examples of the past perfect progressive for all forms – positive statements, negative statements and questions. As always, the past perfect is progressively bold and the simple past is underlined.
positive statements
negations
Questions
we had been chatting in the kitchen before they arrived.
we hadn’t been chatting in the kitchen before they arrived.
Hadn’t we finished waiting in the kitchen before they arrived?
The streets were wet because it had been raining every afternoon.
The streets weren’t wet because it had not been raining every afternoon.
had it finished raining every afternoon?
By the time I made it home I’d been driving for two hours.
By the time I made it home, I hadn’t been driving for two hours.
Hadn’t you finished driving for two hours by the time you made it home?
Past Perfect Progressive Usage
As you have already read, the past perfect progressive is used to indicate a longer or continuous action in the past to describe that before another action in the past has happened. The past perfect progressive is also often in combination with the Simple Past used – the Simple Past describes a one-off completed action in the past, while the Past Perfect Progressive describes the longer action that took place before it.
Basically, a distinction is made between two general applications of the past perfect progressive, which are examined in more detail below.
emphasis on duration
In the first use case, the duration of an action or an event. This is an ongoing storyline up to some point in the past took place. The following examples show you what this can look like:
They had been waiting for over an hour until their guests finally arrived.
heyd been practicing guitar for three years before he got his first gig.
In both examples, a continuous action in the past (waiting such as practicing guitar) that happened until later in the past—namely, until the guests had arrived and until the person had gotten their first appearance. Also, in both sentences by respectively for over an hour such as for three years the duration of the action is explicitly stated.
Consequence of an action in the past
The past perfect progressive can also be used to represent the Consequence or result of an action in the past to represent. You can e.g. B. in the following sentence, which you already know, well recognizable:
The streets were wet because it had been raining every afternoon.
In this case, at some point in the past, the streets were wet because it had rained before. So, as always, everything in the movement takes place in the past tense – both the longer action (the rain) and its aftermath (the wet streets).
Past perfect progressive signal words
There are some signal words for the past perfect progressive, but these should be treated with caution because they can also indicate other tenses. More precisely, these are words that duration emphasize the action, such as e.g.:
- since
- for
- every day
- every day/every week/every month
- when
As I said, such words can on the one hand help you to identify situations that require the past perfect progressive. On the other hand, they can also refer to other tenses such as B. indicate the Present Perfect Progressive or Past Perfect.
Therefore, you should rather think of the chronology or sequence of actions if you are unsure: If it is about an ongoing action in the past that also stopped in the past, you can use the past perfect progressive with a relatively high probability.
Past perfect progressive and differences to other tenses
Since the English language has several past tenses, some of which do not exist in German, it can often be easy to confuse them. Therefore, in the following section you will get to know the most important differences between the past perfect progressive, the past perfect and the present perfect progressive.
Difference to the past perfect
Although their names are relatively similar, the past perfect progressive and the past perfect serve quite different functions. As you have already learned, the past perfect progressive is used to describe a continuous action that took place before another completed event in the past.
That past perfect on the other hand, is used when two brief, one-off actions or events in the past happened one after the other. So it corresponds to that past continuous or the past in German. To illustrate this, here is an example sentence with a German translation:
I had purchased a ticket before the train arrives.
(I would have a ticket Boughtbefore the train arrives.)
As you can see in the example, you form the past perfect as follows: Subject + had + past participle (Infinitive of the verb ending in -ed) + object. If you would like a more detailed explanation of the past perfect, see the summary «Past…