Past Perfect Continuous Tense

Uses of Past Perfect Continuous Tense

Use Case 1

We use Past Perfect Continuous Tense for an action that began before a certain point in the past and continued up to that time.

At that time, she had been developing an app for three months.

I had been waiting for you since morning.

Use Case 2

Past Perfect Continuous Tense is used to say that something had been happening for a period of time before something else happened.

When you joined the company in 2015, Mr. Anand had already been working here for four years.

We had been playing rugby for about an hour when it started to rain very heavily.

Different Sentence structures of the Past Perfect Continuous tense

We use the following helping verbs in past perfect continuous tense (depending on person and number of subject):

Structure of Declarative sentences

Affirmative Declarative Sentences

Pattern: Subject + had + been + $V_4$ + Object + for/since + time

Aanya had been playing badminton since 2015.
They had been playing badminton since 2015.  

Negative Declarative Sentences

Pattern: Subject + had not + been + $V_4$ + Object + for/since + time

Aanya had not been playing badminton since 2015.
They had not been playing badminton since 2015.

Structure of Interrogative sentences

Affirmative Interrogative Sentences

Pattern 1: Had + Subject + been + $V_4$ + Object + for/since + time?

Had Aanya been playing badminton since 2015?
Had they been playing badminton since 2015?

Pattern 2: Wh. family + had + Subject + been + $V_4$ + Object + for/since + time?

Why had Aanya been playing badminton since 2015?
Why had they been playing badminton since 2015?

Negative Interrogative Sentences

Pattern 1: Had + Subject + not + been + $V_4$ + Object + for/since + time?

Had Aanya not been playing badminton since 2015?
Had they not been playing badminton since 2015?

Pattern 2: Wh. family + had + Subject + not + been + $V_4$ + Object + for/since + time?

Why had Aanya not been playing badminton since 2015?
Why had they not been playing badminton since 2015?

Extra Books and Tools

If you prefer to learn via books, or want some good English Grammar books for reference purposes, you may read this article which enlists some of the books recommended by us.