Past Perfect Continuous

Purpose: Past perfect continuous describes an ongoing action that ended when another action started in the past. In contrast to past perfect, which deals with experiences that occurred before a more recent experience, past perfect continuous deals with an ongoing action that ended when a more recent experience began.

Past Perfect:

Before I moved to China to teach English, I had worked at several schools in Canada.

This is about the experience of being at these schools before moving to China. I was a teacher who had experience at several schools before working in China.

Past Perfect Continuous:

Before I moved to China to teach English, I had been working at three schools in Canada.

I had three part-time teaching jobs at the same time before I moved to China. This is about an ongoing action that ended when another action started in the past: these three jobs ended when I flew away.

Past Perfect:

Q. Before you moved to Canada, where had you lived?

A. Before I moved to Canada, I had lived in Poland, England, and China.

This is about the experience of living in three countries. I haven’t given you any information about when I lived in those countries, or in which order.

Past Perfect Continuous:

Q. Before you came to Canada, where had you been living?

A. Before I moved to Canada, I had been living in England.

This is about what I’d been doing right before I moved to Canada.

Note: There is NO PASSIVE VOICE for any perfect continuous.

Note these differences between past perfect continuous (active voice) and past perfect (passive voice):

These two forms are often confused because the auxiliary (helper) verbs - had been – are the same. But one is active voice and the other is passive voice.

Past perfect continuous, active voice: had been asking

Past perfect, passive voice: had been asked

He had been asking for you, but then he left before you could get here.

He had been asked for his ID at the door, but it later turned out to be fake.