Czasu Past Perfect Continuous używamy:
- chcąc wyrazić czynności przeszłe, które były wykonywane przez pewien okres, zanim rozpoczęły się inne czynności w przeszłości:
- I had been reading for an hour when the phone rang. (Czytałem od godziny, kiedy zadzwonił telefon.)
- Jason had been learning Spanish for 5 years before he went to Spain. (Jason uczył się hiszpańskiego od pięciu lat, zanim pojechał do Hiszpanii.)
- Before they moved to Liverpool, they had been living in London for 15 years. (Zanim przeprowadzili się do Liverpoolu, mieszkali w Londynie przez piętnaście lat.)
Okolicznikami czasu w Past Perfect Continuous są wszystkie te stosowane w Present Perfect Continuous i Past Perfect:
I had been working for an hour when my computer broke down.
Before he met Kate, Tom had been going out with Sue.
Konstrukcja:
podmiot + had + been + imiesłów czynny + reszta zdania
Odmiana czasowników w czasie Past Perfect Continuous na przykładzie give | ||||||
forma twierdząca | forma przecząca | forma pytająca | ||||
I | had been giving | I | had not (hadn’t) been giving | Had | I | been giving? |
you | had been giving | you | had not (hadn’t) been giving | Had | you | been giving? |
he | had been giving | he | had not (hadn’t) been giving | Had | he | been giving? |
she | she | she | ||||
it | it | it | ||||
we | had been giving | we | had not (hadn’t) been giving | Had | we | been giving? |
you | you | you | ||||
they | they | they |