| Structure of past perfect continuous | ||
| positive | question | negative |
| I had (I'd) been waiting. You had (you'd) been cooking. He/she/it had been eating. We had (we'd) been waiting. They had (they'd) been playing. |
Had I been waiting? Had you been working? Had he/she/it been waiting? Had we been eating? Had they been talking? |
I hadn't (had not) been waiting. You hadn't been waiting He/she/it hadn't been waiting. We hadn't been working. They hadn't been working. |
| Past perfect continuous - common mistakes | ||
| Common mistakes | Correct version | Why? |
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I had been working hard, so I felt very tired. | The form of the past perfect continuous is had + been + verb-ing. |
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I had heard the song many times before. | Some verbs are not normally used in the continuous form, e.g. stative verbs such as know, like, understand, believe, hear, etc. |
