اللغة الإنجليزية فصل أول

 Unit 2

The past perfect continuous

Student's book page 19

The function:

• We use the past perfect continuous to talk about actions or situations that were happening up to a specific moment in the past. 

        (a continuous or repeated action that happened before another action in the past)

Form:

Subject+ (had been + V-ing) …

Examples

• Ali had been thinking about his friend when he received a text from him.
• By the time the bus arrived, we had been waiting for an hour.
• She had been working at the company for three years when it went out of business.
• Ahmad wanted to sit down because he had been standing all day at work.
• James had been teaching at the university for more than a year before he left for Asia.
• The police had been looking for the criminal for two years before they caught him.
• The patient had been waiting in the emergence for an hour before a doctor finally treated him.
• Ali had been teaching at the university for more than a year before he left for Asia.
• They had been talking for over an hour before Sami arrived.

 Words used with the past perfect continuous: 

since + past           The woman was tired. She had been cleaning since dawn.

for + past               My sister was very busy yesterday as she had been preparing for a special occasion.

by+ past                 By the time we arrived, she had been helping the old man.

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