How to Use Past Perfect Continuous in English Basic English Grammar

I think it’s rolling hi everybody and

welcome back to our weekly live stream

my name is Alisha and today we’re going

to talk about past perfect continuous

past perfect continuous is a topic many

of you have asked me about especially

recently so I’ve decided to make a

lesson on it we are going to cover when

to use it and how to use it and a couple

of pronunciation points as well okay so

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today’s topic is past perfect continuous

past perfect continuous so while we wait

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you today’s lesson boards this is what

we’re going to cover in today’s lesson

if you’re watching on YouTube so today

I’m going to cover past perfect

continuous I’m going to talk about when

to use this one to how we make it and

three how we use it with past tense so

we’re going to practice putting

sentences together with this grammar

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get started with the first part of

today’s lesson them so first the first

thing I want to talk about with today’s

lesson is when we use past perfect

continuous when we use it so this is a

grammar point that many people ask there

they say like what’s the difference

between this and

like past just continuous so we’re going

to first talk about when we need to use

this grammar point okay so let’s get

started here first I’m going to cover

these two uses of past perfect

continuous in today’s lesson so first

first use of this grammar point is to

express a continuing past action that

was interrupted a continuing past action

that was interrupted or the action

changed it had to stop something like

that so we can imagine this on a time

line here is a time line will use this

for today’s lesson where we see the past

going to the future and this is now the

present so we can imagine use one here

as like a continuing action this line

here is a continuing action and then

there’s some change or some interruption

that happens right here so we use past

perfect continuous to describe this

action something that was continuing in

the past I’ll talk about this part later

we use simple past tense to express this

change or this interruption so this is

the first use second for today is we use

past perfect continuous to express a

continuing past actions relationship to

another past action to another past

action so that means that there are two

actions one is continuing and another

action is related here is a blue line so

again in the past there’s my continuing

action there’s some related past action

here also in the past but the continuing

action maybe doesn’t stop so we use this

second one too often to express like a

cause-and-effect kind of relationship so

these are the two situations the two

uses we’re going to cover

in today’s lesson okay so let’s take a

look at two examples sentences that kind

of show these two meanings first one is

this one number one I had been studying

for three hours when the phone rang I

had been studying for three hours when

the phone rang so this sentence

expresses a continuing action I had been

studying this right here is my past

perfect continuous part this part for

three hours this shows how long the

action continued when marks this part

the change or the interruption finally

the phone rang this is a simple past

tense expression this is the change or

the interruption so all of today’s

example sentences will follow this

pattern of present

I’m sorry past perfect continuous

duration interruption or change point or

some point like this and then a simple

past tense action so let’s look at one

more example here this example at the

bottom of the board so first our first

second I had been working at Google so

continuing action for about three years

when I started thinking about quitting

when I started thinking about quitting

so again this is my past continuing

action I had been working at Google so

here past continuing action working at

Google for about three years so this is

the duration of the continuing action

when marks this change or marks this

kind of something related happens I

started thinking about quitting so here

it started I started is past tense I

started thinking about quitting so these

are the

these are when we use examples of when

we use this grammar point past perfect

continuous so this kind of interruption

or change or kind of cause-and-effect

relationship is really important for

this grammar point okay so if you have

any questions you can send them to me in

the chat alright so that is part one for

today’s lesson it’s kind of it’s a

little bit of a challenging grammar

point I think all right but we’ll take

one quick break and then continue on to

part two for today’s lesson if you’re

just joining today’s lesson topic is

past perfect continuous I will show you

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let’s go back to today’s lesson flow

today’s lesson flow past perfect

continuous so I talked about when to use

past perfect continuous

now we’re going to talk about part two

here how to make past perfect continuous

so we’re going to do Oh apparently

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hey just a second everybody I hear

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sorry about that if you heard something

strange I don’t know what it was

okay so let’s continue to part two for

today’s lesson so how to make past

perfect continuous how to make it so

this will be kind of I hope a review

point for this point or for this grammar

today so how do we make past perfect

continuous okay I have this in two parts

we’re going to talk about statements and

then we’re going to talk about questions

and then at the end of this part we’ll

talk about pronunciation and spelling a

bit too okay so first let’s look at how

we make statements a past perfect

continuous statement we use subject plus

had bin plus the ing form of a verb so

continuous or progressive form of a verb

so here are a bunch of examples so I had

been studying as we looked at before or

he had been working or we had been

sleeping or it had been raining so this

it’s this refers to the weather we use

it when we talk about the weather so all

of the past perfect continuous parts of

today’s lesson will follow this pattern

and we’re making a statement so for this

grammar we don’t need to worry about

like he has or she has patterns because

this part this had this is

passed past so we don’t need to worry

about using has in this grammar so this

part the ing part of the verb is the

part we need to change okay so this is

how we make statements with past perfect

continuous I want to talk now about

questions questions how do we make

questions there are two patterns here

the first one is with it starts with

this wh question so wh question means

like who or where or who what where when

why how so we can start our question

with this then we use had after that is

our subject so this is different from

our statement pattern yeah had subject

bin ing verb so this pattern is

different from this pattern your

question pattern and your statement

pattern are different please be careful

so for example what had he been eating

what had he been eating or where had

they been going where had they been

doing so this this pattern these are

information questions we want to get

some kind of information we need we need

an answer some information to answer

these questions if you want to make a

yes-or-no question remove this remove

the WH question and it makes a yes or no

pattern like this one had she been

sleeping had she been sleeping so this

makes a simple yes or no answer had she

been sleeping yes she had so this is how

we make simple yes and no questions

Edwyn can we make a negative statement

yes yes you can to make this negative I

didn’t have a lot of space but I’ll

include it on the board now to make a

negative we put right here when you make

a statement before bin so subject had

not been to make it negative

put knot right here I had not been

studying or been so this is how we make

negatives negatives are maybe not as

common as a positive statement with this

grammar point you might hear it from

time to time I suppose but this is how

we make a negative statement yeah okay

ah good good good some examples are

coming in on YouTube Jose says what have

they been doing all this time

good good so or maybe what have they

been doing all that time maybe would

sound a little bit more natural there

okay so this is how we make questions

and how we make statements let’s go now

to this part at the bottom pronunciation

and spelling I want to spend some time

talking about these points today

pronunciation spelling first with your

statement pattern so like I had he had

we had she had and so on when you’re

speaking and when you’re writing we

reduce these so I had becomes I’d he had

becomes he’d she had become she’d it had

becomes

itted it’ld that’s what it sounds like

so for example I had been studying at

native speed sounds like I’d been

studying we had been working sounds like

we’d been working so he had been working

sounds like he’d been working or she’d

been working we had been sleeping sounds

like we’d been sleeping it had been

raining sounds like it had been raining

it had been raining so please try in

your speech and you can do this in your

writing to use these reduced forms this

is going to sound much more natural a

lot more natural than if you use these

this is still correct yes but it sounds

kind of stiff so you’ll sound much more

natural if you use these reduced forms

okey let’s go to the next one the next

part is about questions over here on

this side of the board when you make

your questions you can also reduce this

hag sound like we did up here but we

don’t really use this when we’re writing

so for your spelling this part is okay

to use but when you are writing and

you’re using these kinds of question

patterns it’s generally better to write

had not the reduced form so this is a

point this is a tip for your

pronunciation only so what had becomes

what did what did or where had becomes

weird why had becomes wide for example

what had he been eating becomes what had

he been eating and where had they been

going becomes weird they’ve been going

this one we don’t reduce because there’s

no question word here at the beginning

just had she been sleeping so please

note again this is a point for

pronunciation only you can you can use

this if you’re like text messaging with

your friends or something like that

these are like there’s no communication

problem but if you’re writing like an

email at work or something like you know

if you’re trying to do something

politely it’s better to use this OOP

sorry this okay

alright so this is part two I’m going to

come and look at your questions now

Natalia on YouTube says what’s the

difference between I had been and I have

been I had been this is today’s grammar

point I had been is a past perfect one

so past perfect if you missed part one

past perfect we use to talk about past

continuing actions I have been is a

present perfect pattern we use that to

talk about actions that started in the

past and continue to the present there

are some videos on our channel about

that

okay some other examples are coming in

Conwell GTA says I’d been struggling to

learn English when I maybe when I found

Alicia’s videos mm yeah so it’s quite

common I talked about this and I’m going

to talk about this in part 3 it’s very

common to include a like a duration of

time for example for three hours or for

a long time when so this will be in part

three of today’s lesson okay Lenna

says what’s the difference between I

would and I’d oh yeah this is a very

common question thanks for pointing that

out so a lot of learners ask how do I

know the difference how do I know when

this is I had or I would like yes when

we use the reduced form they both become

ID in this example right so how do you

know the key here is to look at the word

after so I had been so when you see this

bin like it’s always going to be been in

this grammar pattern you know it’s past

perfect continuous when you have an I

would like pattern for example to make a

request like I would like a coffee

please after after the would I’d like a

coffee please you have a regular verb

like an infinitive verb dictionary forms

work so we know it’s not a past perfect

continuous we always follow this pattern

with bin so to find out to determine to

know what kind of it is is it is it

sorry is it had is it would look at what

comes after that and at first you’ll

think oh this takes so long but with

time and practice especially with

reading reading really really helps with

this it will gradually come to get this

more naturally okay Lucas on YouTube

says I’d been studying English grammar

for two hours when I got hungry very

nice good good good

could you give another example for past

perfect

yes I will give you more more examples

in part three we’ll get there in just a

minute

Edwin says I have been playing my guitar

for two hours when my mother called me

perfect perfect okay

Lubner says what is the difference

between past perfect continuous and the

past continuous yeah so a key with this

past perfect continuous we use this to

mark like these changes or these

interruptions generally so you can say

for example like in this one I was

studying like that’s a past perfect

expression so but when we use this

grammar point it’s kind of we want to

show some relationship between our

continuing action and another past

action okay

okay I have to continue on to part three

so I hope that this will answer some of

the questions that I see coming in if

you missed it I will show you today’s

lesson boards one more time but I’m past

perfect continuous so we talked about

when to use past perfect continuous we

talked about how to make it and some

pronunciation and spelling points

finally today we’re going to talk about

how to use it with past tense so I’m

going to go through a four-step process

to make a past perfect continuous

sentence we’re going to practice this

together now so please get ready to send

me your examples in the jet okay

so let’s take a look at these I’ve made

four steps I think maybe one of them two

of them are very very easy so I hope you

can easily make an example sentence

today so let’s take a look use with past

tense so we use past perfect continuous

to show our continuing action and then

we put it together with a simple past

tense action so that shows us something

has changed okay

please don’t flood the chat so that

everyone can participate so flood the

chat means sending lots of messages in

what time okay so step one in this

process is I had been as we practiced so

for this practice our subject is I let’s

make it easy I had been plus verb in the

ing form this is step one so to make

your sentence I had been something

ing step two it’s to choose for or since

so if you’ve studied a present perfect

present perfect continuous you know this

to review choose for or since for before

a length of time like three hours or two

days or a year a length of time or use

since referring to a point in time

Tuesday or last weekend or

July last year so please choose one of

these generally I feel like four is a

little bit more common with this pattern

so I had been blah blah blah in for

length of time step three

when please do not use while why not we

use while generally in present tense

expressions to talk about two things

happening at the same time here in this

practice in today’s grammar point we are

using when because when marks the change

point or some interruption point or that

something new happens we are not talking

about two things happening at the same

time together so you cannot use while

here please use went so I had been

something something something for some

length of time when final step number

four simple past tense statement so

finish your sentence with a simple past

tense statement so when I say simple

past tense I mean make a make a

statement with just a simple past tense

verb so let’s look at three examples of

this I will break down each of these

first one I had been teaching a lesson

online for 15 minutes when my internet

connection suddenly died so died here

means it was cut off it stopped

this is a casual way to express that

something turned off unexpectedly like

your phone so what’s happening in this

sentence I had been teaching there

here’s step one I had been in right here

I had been teaching so I’ll mark this

part I had in teaching oops I I have

been teaching a lesson online so I have

some extra information here I had been

teaching a lesson online here’s my

continuing past action

for 15 minutes this is the duration of

my action how long it was when so this

marks my interruption something happened

it’s tells us this my internet

connection suddenly died my internet

connection suddenly died simple past

tense so died is the past tense of die

so when my internet connection suddenly

died so these are all four parts in this

sentence okay so try to send me your

example in the chat and I will try to

check in between present continuous and

past continuous I don’t have any present

versus past prepared for today because

they’re kind of we use them in some

different ways mmm

but I do have some lessons about present

continuous on the channel I will put a

link in the YouTube description so you

can check that later okay okay let’s

continue to part two some of your

examples are coming in John Jean says I

had been watching a a video about

Italian language for 30 minutes when

it’s the chats going too fast when your

online class started a point I had been

blah blah blah ing make sure this part

comes before this part so don’t put your

for or since before this so first is

this expression okay let’s go to part 2

we’d been looking for a new apartment

for months when the perfect place became

available in our neighborhood okay so

what’s happening here we’d been looking

for a new apartment we’ve been looking

for a new apartment this weed is that we

had I talked about earlier

so here’s my continuing past action for

months this is my duration months so

several months many months when marks my

interruption the perfect place became

available in our neighborhood the

perfect place became available so became

is my simple past tense verb okay some

of your questions Jha ki says what’s the

difference between I have been and I had

been so I answered it briefly earlier I

have been is a present perfect

continuous structure today we’re talking

about past perfect past perfect relates

to continuing actions in the past

present perfect relates to actions that

started in the past and continued to the

present I have again I have lessons

those of you who are asking about

present perfect I have some lessons that

I will put a link to after after this

live on YouTube can I use before or

after in past perfect yes can you you

can yes no there’s a yes yes this is the

answer to that but if you have an

example that would be very helpful how

do I know if I should use past perfect

or past perfect continuous please watch

the first part of today’s lesson the

first part of today’s lesson where I

talked about when to use so it’s all

there please read this is being recorded

please check it later okay let’s go to

part three because I’m late again okay

lesson they’d been sleeping peacefully

for a few hours when a thunderstorm woke

them up

mmm so what’s happening here again

they’ve been sleeping peacefully so that

was the continuing past action how long

for a few hours for a few hours when

marks the change a thunderstorm a

thunderstorm woke them up woke them up

so here’s my past tense verb right here

woke um okay so all of these examples

are showing some past action again this

is from part one of today’s lesson you

can re-watch it later past action

continuing action that was changed or

interrupted something happened there’s

some relationship with this past action

that’s what we use past perfect

continuous to do so if you missed this

don’t worry you can check this at the

beginning of today’s lesson Wow okay so

I have to finish there I’m somehow I’m

late every week I talk too much every

week but you have good questions

um physalis as I had been meeting new

people in the chat box for 30 minutes

when Alicia’s live classroom started

nice grammatically perfect very nice

very nice al dances as we’ve been

discussing for long when children show

we’ve been discussing if you want to use

the expression for a long time please

make sure to say that for a long time

we’ve been doing something for a long

time when this thing happened okay a

good examples Gina and Jean says I had

been playing soccer for an hour when it

started to rain perfect perfect okay

how do I use had with the negative I

talked about that in part two of today’s

lesson part two of today’s lesson I

covered negatives quickly had not been

so it should come right here had not

again check part 2 for today’s lesson

there all right I have to finish up for

today so thank you for joining me as

always next week of course I will be

back

next week’s topic is here um next lesson

is July first can you believe it started

with July oh my gosh July first I’m

going to talk about modal verbs again so

part I think I’m on part two of my modal

verbs in the past series I’m going to

talk about would have and wouldn’t have

so we talked a bit about wood today but

this will be a modal verb in the past

lesson so please join me again next week

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