The Past Perfect Continuous Tense
Образование. The Past Perfect Continuous Tense образуется при помощи вспомогательного глагола to be в форме Past Perfect (had been)и формы причастия настоящего времени (Present Participle) смыслового глагола: I had been working, he had been working.
В вопросительной форме первый вспомогательный глагол ставится перед подлежащим: Had I been working? Had he been working?
Отрицательная форма образуется при помощи частицы not, которая ставится после первого вспомогательного глагола: I had not been working, he had not been working.
Употребление the Past Perfect Continuous Tense.
1. Действие, которое длилось в течение периода времени вплоть до определенного момента в прошлом. The Past Perfect ContinuousTense употребляется, когда указан период времени, в течение которого действие уже совершалось, т.е. с такими обозначениями времени, как for two hours в течение двух часов, for three months в течение трех месяцев, for a long time в течение долгого времени, долго, давно и т. п.
| She had been cooking for an hour when I came. | Она готовила уже час, когда я пришел. |
2. Прошлое действие определенной длительности, которое имело очевидные результаты в прошлом.
| He felt tired as he had been playing football for several hours. | Он чувствовал себя усталым, так как играл в футбол в течение нескольких часов. |
EXERCISES
| Exercise 1. | Match the parts of the sentences. |
| 1. | I had been trying to call him all morning | a) | when he called me. |
| 2. | We had been working on the project for months | b) | for a few minutes but I think it might have been longer. |
| 3. | She had red eyes because she had been peeling onions. | c) | I hadn’t been paying any attention to him. |
| 4. | I hadn’t been working for very long before | d) | she had been working too hard. |
| 5. | The snow was very deep | e) | someone offered me a lift. |
| 6. | When asked ma that question, I realized | f) | It had been snowing all night. |
| 7. | They hadn’t been living there very long | g) | She hadn’t been crying. |
| 8. | She was ill because | h) | when it was cancelled. |
| 9. | They said they had only been waiting | i) | when they decided to move again. |
| Exercise 2. | Complete the conversation. Put in the Past Perfect Continuous of the verbs. |
| Mary: Vicky: Mary: Vicky: Mary: Vicky: | How was your job interview? Awful. I felt terribly nervous 1. ____ (I / worry) about it all week. And I was tired because 2.____ (I / work) on my project the night before. 3.____ (I / not look) forward to the interview at all. So what happened? The woman interviewing me was half an hour late because 4.____ (she / deal) with an unexpected problem, she said. 5.____ (I / wait) ages, and I’d got even more nervous. How did the interview go? Well, I tried to sound confident. 6.____ (I / read) a book that said that’s what you have to do in job interviews. But I don’t know if I gave the right answers. |
| Exercise 3. | Make the following sentences negative. |
| Model: | It wasn’t a good time to invest. |
| Inflation had been falling for several months. | |
| Inflation hadn’t been falling for several months. |
| 1. | Before I changed jobs, I had been working on a plan to reduce production costs. |
| 2. | We had been thinking about buying a new house and we decided to stay here. |
| 3. | It had been snowing for a while before we left. |
| 4. | We had been playing tennis for only a few minutes when it started raining. |
| 5. | He was out of breath when he arrived because he had been running. |
| 6. | She said she had been trying to call me all day. |
| 7. | They said they had been shopping. |
| 8. | I told you I had been looking for some new clothes. |
| Exercise 4. | Write questions to the following answers using the Past Perfect Continuous. |
| Model: | (how long)____? How long had you been studying Turkish before you moved to Ankara? |
| – I had not been studying Turkish very long. |
| 1. | (what) ____? | – Joe had been sitting in the corner all the evening. |
| 2. | (how long) ____? | – The boys had been standing in a line for ten minutes. |
| 3. | (who) ____? | – The girls had been planning a party before you returned |
| 4. | (what) ____? | – Jack had been sleeping for ten hours before she rang up. |
| 5. | (what) ____? | – Mary had been fishing for salmon since 2 o’clock. |
| 6. | (who) ____? | – Max had been bothering Mary since he finished his report. |
| 7. | (how long) ____? | – Max had been riding the bike all the morning. |
| 8. | ____? | – No, they have been going to the cinema when I saw them. |
| Exercise 5. | Correct the mistakes where necessary. |
| 1. | I have been writing my exercises for two hours when my friend came. |
| 2. | By three o’clock the new device had been worked for two hours. |
| 3. | I had a headache because I had been working on the computer all day. |
| 4. | She said she hadn’t smoking but the room smelled of cigarettes. |
| 5. | She’s put the weight back but I think she’d lost it because she had been ran. |
| 6. | We hadn’t been paying any attention so didn’t know what to do. |
| 7. | The phone bill was huge. She had being calling her boyfriend in Australia. |
| 8. | The kids were very hungry when they came in. They were running around in the garden all afternoon. |
| 9. | They shouted for a few hours before their parents arrived. |
| 10. | How long had been you waiting to get on the bus? |
| Exercise 6. | Work in pairs.Play a game. Find out who remembers more activities that he / she had been doing before 10 o ’ clock in the evening. Count the activities. |
| Model: | Before 10 o ’ clock in the evening I had been translating the article. I did not finish it. I was still translating at that moment. |
