Continuing my series demonstrating how each tense can combined with the other tenses, here I’m looking at the past perfect and past perfect continuous. The aim is to provide examples sentences that show how a single tense connects to the other 12 aspects; past, present and future in the simple, continuous, perfect and perfect continuous. I started with the past simple and continuous here, and we continue today with the past perfect forms.
To demonstrate the differences, I am using the perfect clause “I had eaten lunch.” It provides a simple context and situation that can imply a relevant consequence for the perfect tense (e.g. no longer needing to cook/eat). Again, with different verbs other ideas might be possible (such as when using abstract verbs).
Past Perfect Tense
The past perfect is used to specifically show that something was complete at a certain time in the past; because of this, it mostly connects to other past tense statements (for a relative point of past time). Though some of these statements make sense on their own without an explicit past time connection, the implication with the past perfect is that we are speaking in relation to some other past event. So when we say, for example, “I had eaten lunch while it was raining.”, the idea we are implying might be something like “I had eaten lunch while it was raining, and the rain later stopped.” Likewise, “I had eaten lunch after I had been studying all morning.” would generally suggest something like “I was not hungry at 1pm because I had eaten lunch after I had been studying all morning.”
These implications are less clear for a connection between the past perfect and present or future, so we can’t easily form a logical sentence without including additional context. Note that almost all of these examples could also work with the past simple instead of the past perfect, the key difference is that our past perfect is emphasising the completion of the action at a certain past time.
- I had eaten lunch.
- I had eaten lunch before I took my exam. (+Past Simple)
- I had eaten lunch while it was raining. (+Past Continuous)
- I had eaten lunch which I had cooked myself. (+Past Perfect)
- I had eaten lunch after I had been studying all morning. (+Past Perfect Continuous)
- I had eaten lunch before I got home, but I have grown hungry again. (+Present Perfect)
- I had eaten lunch before they offered me some, and I have been regretting it ever since. (+Present Perfect Continuous)
- I had eaten lunch without her that day, and my wife remains upset. (+Present Simple)
- I had eaten lunch before I got home, so I am only watching TV now. (+Present Continuous)
- I had eaten lunch there before it closed down but I will try the restaurant again if it reopens. (+Future Simple)
- I had eaten lunch there before I left London and I will be eating there again when I return. (+Future Simple Continuous)
- I had eaten lunch before going out and I will have made that mistake four times this month if I do it again tomorrow. (+Future Perfect)
- I had eaten lunch before I got home and I will have been doing so every day for a month by the end of the week. (+Future Perfect Continuous)
Past Perfect Continuous
The past perfect continuous follows all the same considerations as the past perfect, though with the focus being on the process rather than completion, so usually we use it instead to talk about a duration or something that was interrupted. As with the past perfect, these examples imply, or require, a past time context – in these cases, however, we would usually expect either a duration or an interruption (e.g. “I had been eating lunch after I had been studying, when the phone rang.”). They also might be easily replaced with the past continuous, where the specific past time is less important.
- I had been eating lunch.
- I had been eating lunch when the bell rang. (+Past Simple)
- I had been eating lunch while it was raining. (+Past Continuous)
- I had been eating lunch which the chefs had prepared earlier. (+Past Perfect)
- I had been eating lunch after I had been studying all morning. (+Past Perfect Continuous)
- I had been eating lunch there for years, but the cafe has closed now. (+Present Perfect)
- I had been eating lunch when our dog escaped, and I have been looking for him ever since. (+Present Perfect Continuous)
- I had been eating lunch too quickly, the doctor told me, so now I take my time. (+Present Simple)
- I had been eating lunch at a cafe that closed, so I am looking for a new place to go. (+Present Continuous)
- I had been eating lunch with my friends last week, but I will eat alone today. (+Future Simple)
- I had been eating lunch outside before winter, and I will be doing it again soon. (+ Future Simple Continuous)
- I had been eating lunch outside before winter made it too cold, but I will have prepared for it this year. (+ Future Perfect)
- I had been eating lunch outside before winter, and I will have been doing so every summer for a decade if I do it this year. (+Future Perfect Continuous)
Any questions, let me know in the comments below – and I’ll be back next time with the present tenses!
Hi Phil.
If I were to say “He was a wonderful guitarist. He had been playing ever since he was a teenager”, would it be right to say that this sentence means the following:
This person (i.e. He)’s action of playing guitar started since he was a teenager and continued all the way up to a later period of this person’s life when he became a wonderful guitarist (i.e. this later period being represented by “he was a wonderful guitarist”)?
Hi Shizuka,
Big apologies I think I missed this one – yes, that’s correct!
Phil
These type of articles are very helpful
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How to report a sentence with past perfect continous tense and simple past.
Eg.Ann said, “I had been doing my project for three hours when the lights went out.”
Should it be changed to
Ann said that she had been doing her project for three hours when the lights had gone out.
OR
Ann said that she had been doing her project for three hours when the lights went out.
Hi Raheema,
In this case it wouldn’t need changing: we backshift described actions in reported speech, but in this case the action being described is already the past perfect continuous, which cannot be backshifted further, while the past simple is used here for a time clause, and does not need to be backshifted as it defines a point of time. So your second option, “Ann said that she had been doing her project for three hours when the lights went out” is correct.
In fact I’d suggest if we use reported speech with mixed perfect tenses and simple tenses, it would make sense to keep the simple tense generally, otherwise you lose the distinction between the two.
Phil
Hi Phil.
Is it correct to say that the past perfect continuous relates to the past perfect tense in one sentence in the same way as the past simple relates to the past continuous in the same sentence? So, these to sentences have a subtle difference: “She had been studying for three hours before she had realized her book was upside down.” and “She was studying for three hours before she realized her book was upside down.”
Thank you!
Hi Liudmyla,
This is a little tricky to unpack, but no I would generally not so much – it would sound more natural to combine the past perfect continuous with the past simple there (“She had been studying for three hours before she realised…”). The reason being that both the past perfect and past perfect continuous essentially place us before another past event, but unless that other past event needs to be shown as done at an earlier time, too, there’s no need for the perfect. It would only really be necessary to use both at once if we wanted to discuss both a complete and ongoing event occurring before something else, which would be quite rare (e.g. “She had been studying for three hours and had learnt nothing before she realised the book was upside down”).
That said a lot of how we combine tenses will involve time clauses, so the article on that might help: https://englishlessonsbrighton.co.uk/time-clauses-explanation-rules-exercise/
I hope this helps!