The whole evening yesterday

1. to describe an action that was taking place at a specific point in time in the past.

2. to describe an action that was interrupted by another action in the past. The action with the longest duration is in the past continuous.

3. to indicate that two actions in the past were in the progress simultaneously (with while)

4. to express action that were in progress at the time of another particular time

5. to talk about irritating repeated actions in the past (with always, constantly)

6. to make polite inquiries

7. to describe the scene at the beginning of a story

Past Perfect

with adverbs like already,

until,

already... by, before,

after,

just;

if either before or after is used Past Simple may be used instead Past Perfect)

1. to say that something had already happened before another action or specific time in the past

* the action which occurs previously in time is expressed in the past perfect tense, and the action which occurs later is expressed in the past tense

2. in reported speech after verbs like told, asked, said, wanted, wondered, explained

3. to show regret about the past

4. in third conditional, also called conditional type 3 (if + past perfect in the 'if' clause, perfect conditional in the main clause). This is a structure we use to talk about unreal conditions in the past.

5. with conjunctions like no sooner... than or hardly/barely... when

6. a state that started in the past, and continued up to sometime in the past

Past Perfect Continuous

For

Since

1. to express an ongoing action in the past before a particular time or another action in the past. The Past Perfect Continuous emphasizes duration of time before something.

Susan had been studying Spanish for 3 years before she started to learn English.

He had been running until he was out of breath.

They had been watching TV for two hours before Mike came.

Diana had been playing tennis for half an hour when it began to rain.

I had been writing letters before lunch.

At 10 o'clock Kate had been playing the piano for two hours. (She began at 8 o'clock and at 10 o'clock she was still playing.)

2. for past events or actions which had a result in the past.

The grass was wet. It had been raining all morning. Tom was very tired. He had been working in the garden for a long time.

3. The Past Perfect Continuous also appears in third conditional sentences and in reported speech, when we want to emphasize duration of time.

If he hadn't been reading for hours last night, he would have got up earlier.

She said she had been teaching English for the last three years in Japan.

!!! Remember, that we use the Past Perfect for finished actions in the past and with state verbs (be, know, belong, hear, believe, like, mean, etc).

Peter had been there for nearly 2 hours when they finally arrived.