Past Perfect Continuous Tense

The structure of the past perfect continuous tense is:

subject	+	auxiliary verb HAVE	+	auxiliary verb BE	+	main verb
		conjugated in simple past tense		past participle		present participle
		had		been		base + ing

For negative sentences in the past perfect continuous tense, we insert not after the first auxiliary verb. For question sentences, we exchange the subject and first auxiliary verb. Look at these example sentences with the past perfect continuous tense:

	subject	auxiliary verb		auxiliary verb	main verb
+	I	had		been	working.
+	You	had		been	playing	tennis.
-	It	had	not	been	working	well.
-	We	had	not	been	expecting	her.
?	Had	you		been	drinking?
?	Had	they		been	waiting	long?

When speaking with the past perfect continuous tense, we often contract the subject and first auxiliary verb:

I had been	I'd been
you had been	you'd been
he had she had been it had been	he'd been she'd been it'd been
we had been	we'd been
they had been	they'd been

How do we use the Past Perfect Continuous Tense?

The past perfect continuous tense is like the past perfect tense, but it expresses longer actions in the past before another action in the past. For example:

• Ram started waiting at 9am. I arrived at 11am. When I arrived, Ram had been waiting for two hours.

Ram had been waiting for two hours when I arrived.
past	present	future
Ram starts waiting in past at 9am.
9 11
I arrive in past at 11am.

examples:

• John was very tired. He had been running.
• I could smell cigarettes. Somebody had been smoking.
• Suddenly, my car broke down. I was not surprised. It had not been running well for a long time.
• Had the pilot been drinking before the crash?

You can sometimes think of the past perfect continuous tense like the present perfect continuous tense, but instead of the time being now the time is past.

past perfect continuous tense				present perfect continuous tense
had | been | doing | >>>> |	| | | |			| | | |	have | been | doing | >>>> |
past	now	future		past	now	future

For example, imagine that you meet Ram at 11am. Ram says to you:

• "I am angry. I have been waiting for two hours."

Later, you tell your friends:

• "Ram was angry. He had been waiting for two hours."

Past Perfect Continuous Structure

Positive

Subject + had + been + verb + ing

I, You, He, She, We, They had been working for two hours when she telephoned.

Negative

Subject + had + not (hadn't) + been + verb + ing

I, You, He, She, We, They hadn't been paying attention for long when he asked the question.

Past Perfect Continuous Tense digunakan untuk menyatakan hal atau peristiwa yang sesuatu yang TELAH dan SEDANG terjadi dimasa LAMPAU. Dalam setiap tenses yang mengandung Perfect Continuous, maka “sedang” nya itu mengandung arti “sudah dimulai, masih terjadi, dan masih terus”, lebih panjang periodenya, dan itu bisa kini (present), bisa dulu (past) dan bisa akan datang (future).

Contoh

Kemarin teman saya datang ke rumah saya, ketika itu saya sedang memperbaiki kulkas. Waktu dia sampai,saya sudah mulai kerja, dan saya lanjutkan pekerjaan tersebut sambil ngobrol sama dia. Untuk menyatakan kejadian “membetulkan kulkas” tersebut kita gunakan Past Perfect Continuous Tense.

Rumus Past Perfect Continuous Tense

Positif: S + had + been + Ving

Negatif: S + had + not + been + Ving

Tanya: Had + S + been + Ving

Berdasarkan Contoh peristiwa diatas maka kalimatnya menjadi :
- I had been repairing freezer when my friend came to my house

Setiap tenses yang mengandung “Past” pasti pakai kata kerja atau kata kerja bantu bentuk ke-2. Dalam Past Perfect Continuous Tense ini kata kerja bentuk ke-2 atau V2 nya adalah HAD. Bentuk pertamanya adalah Have/has. Urutannya: Have-had-had.

Setiap tenses yang yang mengandung kata “Perfect” pasti pake kata kerja atau kata kerja bentuk ke-3. Dimana kata kerja ketiganya di Past Perfect Continuous Tense ini? Ia terletak pada “Been” nya itu. Been adalah bentuk ke-3 atau V3 dari be (tobe). Urutannya: tobe (am, is are) – (was, were) – been.

Setiap tenses yang mengandung kata “Continuous” pasti menggunakan kata kerja bentung ING atau singkat Ving. Present Continuous Tense, Present Perfect Continuous Tense, Past Continuous, Past Perfect Continuous Tense dan sebagainya pasti pakai Ving.