The Complete Guide to English Tenses with Infographics
The tenses (different grammar for time) in English can be a little difficult to understand. Here is a complete guide to all 12 major verb tenses in the English language, and conditional sentences. Each verb tense has Infographics and examples to help you understand how the verbs are changed in that tense, and which time each tense is for. There are also examples of the different ways that tense can be used.
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When Do I Use the Past Perfect Continuous Tense?
1. When you want to describe how long something lasted that started in the past, and finished in the past. There is often a second event in the past that happened after the present perfect continuous event. This second event is written using the past simple.
Katie had been living in Bulgaria for 3 years before she met Alice.
I hadn’t been waiting very long before you picked me up yesterday.
Had you been working for the company for a long time before you decided to leave?
2. When you are telling a story about something that happened in the past, and you want to show the outcome for that action in the past. The result is usually written in the past simple.
Daniel had been swimming before his class, so he was very tired.
Had you been sleeping before I called you yesterday? You sounded confused on the telephone.
It hadn’t (had not) been raining for long, so the pavement was quite dry.
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