Past Perfect vs Past Progressive

Grammar
Explanation

Time up to a point in the past
We use the past perfect simple (had + past participle) to talk
about time up to a certain point in the past.

Examples:

● She'd published her first poem by the time she was eight.

We'd finished all the water before we were halfway up the mountain.

Had the parcel arrived when you called yesterday?

Past perfect for the earlier of two past actions

We can use the past perfect to show the order of two past events. The past perfect shows the earlier action and the past simple shows the later action.

•When the police arrived, the thief had escaped.

•The Romans spoke Latin. (NOT The Romans had spoken Latin.)

Note: that if there's only a single event, we don't use the past perfect, even if it happened a long time ago.

Past perfect after before

We can also use before + past perfect to show that an action was not done or was incomplete when the past simple action happened.

Examples:

●They left before I'd spoken to them.

●Sadly, the author died before he'd finished the series.

Adverbs

We often use the adverbs already (= 'before the specified time'), still (= as
previously), just (= 'a very short time before the specified time'), ever (= 'at any time before the specified time') or never (= 'at no time before the
specified time') with the past perfect.

I called his office but he'd already left.
It still hadn't rained at the beginning of May.
I went to visit her when she'd just moved to Berlin.
It was the most beautiful photo I'd ever seen.
Had you ever visited London when you moved there?
I'd never met anyone from California before I met Jim.

Examples

Past perfect simple or

past perfect
continuous?

By Miss Gabriela Ortez

Grammar
Explanation

We use the past perfect simple with action verbs to
emphasize the completion of an event. We use the past
perfect continuous to show that an event or action in the
past was still continuing.

Examples:

●Past perfect simple = I had worked

●Past perfect continuous = I had been working

Let’s Compare

•The builders had put up the
scaffolding around the house.

The builders had been putting
up the scaffolding when the
roof fell in.

•Past perfect simple emphasizes the completion of the action (the scaffolding is up).

•Past perfect continuous emphasizes a continuing or ongoing action.

We use the past perfect simple to refer to the completion of an activity
and the past perfect continuous to focus on the activity and duration of
the activity.

Let’s Compare

•I’d waited an hour for the bus.

I’d been waiting an hour for
the bus.

•Past perfect simple emphasizes
the completion of the activity (the
waiting is over).

•Past perfect continuous focuses
on the duration of the activity.

The past perfect simple suggests something more permanent than the
past perfect continuous, which can imply that something is temporary.

Let’s Compare

•She’d always lived with her
parents.

She’d been living with her
parents.

•Past perfect simple
We don’t know how long.

•Past perfect continuous
Suggests a temporary situation.

The past perfect simple suggests something more permanent than the
past perfect continuous, which can imply that something is temporary.

NOTE

Some verbs are not used very often in the continuous form.

We don’t use the continuous form with some verbs of

mental process (know, like, understand, believe) and verbs

of the senses (hear, smell, taste):

We’d known for a long time that the company was going to close.
Not: We’d been knowing …

We’d tasted the milk and had decided it was bad, so we threw it away.
Not: We’d been tasting the milk …

NOTE

We don’t use the continuous form with actions that are

completed at a single point in time (start, stop):

Had they started the game on time?

Not: Had they been starting the game on time?

EXERCISES

https://www.ego4u.com/en/cram-up/grammar/past-perfect-progressive/exercises

https://agendaweb.org/exercises/verbs/past-perfect/past-perfect-continuous-write