Past Perfect Continuous

A. We use the past perfect continuous to talk about something that was in progress recently before or up to a past point in time, and the past perfect when we talk about a finished activity before a past time:

Examples:

1. I'd been finishing some work in the garden when Sue arrived, so I didn't hear her come in. (not I'd finished some work in the garden when Sue arrived, so I didn't hear her come in.)
2. I'd finished all the ironing, so I started cleaning the windows. (not I'd been finishing all the ironing so I started cleaning the windows.)
   
   Sometimes we can use either the past perfect continuous or the past perfect with a very similar meaning:
   
   
3. I'd been working/I'd worked hard all year, so I felt that I deserved a holiday.

B. If we talk about how many times something happened in a period up to a particular past time, we use the past perfect, not the past perfect continuous:

1. How many times had you met him before yesterday? (not How many times had vou been meeting.)
   
2.  I had stayed in the hotel twice in the 1980s. (not I had been staying in the hotel twice...)

C. The past perfect continuous can be used to talk about a situation or activity that went on before a particular past time and (i) finished at that time, (ii) continued beyond it, or (iii) finished shortly before it:

1. We'd been driving for about an hour when the engine suddenly stopped.
2. She felt terrible during the interview because she had been suffering from flu since the previous day.
3. When I last saw John, he'd been running and was out of breath.
4. If we are not interested in how long the activity went on, we can use the past continuous instead of the past perfect continuous.

Compare:

1. When the merger was announced it became apparent that the two companies had been discussing the possibility since last year. 
2. A friend told me about a conversation she'd recently overheard. Two women were discussing their holiday plans...
3. I first met Steve and Jane when they had been going out together for five years, and they didn't get married for another three years after that.
4. Emma met Graham when she was going out with his best friend.

D. Remember that we don't describe states with continuous tenses, and we use the past perfect, not the past perfect continuous, even when we focus on the length of a situation up to a particular past time:

1. We had owned the car for six months before we discovered it was stolen. (not We had been owning the car for 6 months...)

Please note that:
The past perfect continuous is mainly used in written texts and is less common in speech. 

Try this exercise to test your grammar.

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