Past Perfect Continuous, Past Perfect, Past Simple

Question 1

Past Perfect Continuous use when the action is occurring during a time in the past. Past perfect, the action has finished the time in the past.

Answer 1

I’d been finishing some work in the garden when Lea arrived.
I’d finished all the ironing so I started cleaning the windows.

Question 2

Past perfect use to talk about how many times the action happened in the past.

Answer 2

I had stayed in the hotel twice in the 1990s.

Question 3

Past Perfect Continuous use when an action continuous before a pastime and 1-finished at the time, 2-continued beyond, or 3-finished shortly before.

Answer 3

1-I’d been driving for an hour when the engine stopped.
2-She felt terrible during the interview because she’d been suffering from flu since the previous day.
3-When I last saw Omar, he’d been running and was out of breath.

Question 4

When we are not interested in how long the activity went on, use PAST CONTINUOUS instead of Past perfect Continuous.

Answer 4

Karin met Lars when she was going out with her best friend.

Question 5

Don’t describe states with continuous tenses. Use Past Perfect when focus on the length of the situation in the Past.

Answer 5

We had owned the car for only six weeks when the clutch broke.

Question 6

Past Perfect Continuous is more used in written texts and less common in speech.

Answer 6

Carl had been climbing alone which has claimed many lives in the past.