Verb Tenses - Past Perfect Continous

The Past Perfect Continuous tense is used to express how long something had been going on before something important happened in the past:

Jane had been studying for four hours when he came home.
Jack had been driving four over six hours when he finally pulled over to have lunch.

Something that had been happening over a period of time in the past up until another point in the of past

I had been playing tennis for two hours when I sprained my ankle.
Jane had been studying for two years when he was drafted into the army.

Something that had been happening in preparation for something else:

I had been practicing for three days and was ready for the concert.
Tom had been studying hard and felt good about the test he was about to take.

In the third conditional to express imagined conditions:

If I had been working on that project, we would have been successful.
She would have been ready for the test if she had been preparing diligently.

Structure

Positive
Subject + had + been + verb + ing

I, You, He, She, We, They had been working for two hours when she telephoned.

Negative
Subject + had + not (hadn't) + been + verb + ing

I, You, He, She, We, They hadn't been paying attention for long when he asked the question.

Questions
Question word (often 'How long') + had + been + subject + verb + ing

How long -> had he, she, you, we, they been working before he arrived?

There are two types of questions in this assessment.

Follow the appropriate instructions for each question type:

1) Fill in each blank space with the past perfect continuous tense of the verb in parentheses.

2) Change each sentence into the present perfect tense. (Ex: "I am playing baseball --> I have played baseball")

Before submitting the test, check the following:

Punctuation and capitalization
Spelling
Spaces (don't add any unnecessary spaces)

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