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Study this example situation:
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Yesterday morning I got up and looked out of the window. The
sun was shining but the ground was very wet.
It had been raining.
It was not raining when I looked out of the window;
the sun was shining. But it had been raining before.
That's why the ground was wet.
Had been -ing is the past perfect continuous:
I/we/you/they
he/she/it |
had |
(= I'd etc.)
(= he'd etc.) |
been |
doing working
playing etc. |
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Some more examples:
- When the boys came into the house, their clothes were dirty, their
hair was untidy and one of them had a black eye. They'd been
fighting.
- I was very tired when I arrived home. I'd been working
hard all day.
You can say that something had been happening for a period
of time before something else happened:
- Our game of tennis was interrupted. We'd been playing for
about half an hour when it started to rain very heavily.
- Ken gave up smoking two years ago. He'd been smoking for
30 years.
Had been -ing {past perfect continuous} is the past
of have been -ing {present perfect continuous}. Compare:
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present perfect continuous
- I hope the bus comes soon. I've been waiting for
20 minutes, (before now)
- He's out of breath. He has been running.
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past perfect continuous
- At last the bus came. I'd been waiting for 20 minutes,
(before the bus came}
- He was out of breath. He had been running.
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Compare had been doing and was doing (past continuous):
- It wasn't raining when we went out. The sun was shining.
But it had been raining, so the ground was wet.
- Ann was sitting in an armchair watching television. She
was tired because she'd been working very hard.
Some verbs (for example, know and want) are not normally
used in the continuous:
- We were good friends. We had known each other for years,
(not 'had been knowing') For a list of these verbs, see Unit
4.
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