Mr. P./Marc will talk about the Past Perfect Continuous in this lesson. This tense is mainly used with the Past Simple to express an action in progress before another action in the past. It is easily confused with the Past Continuous. He will explain the difference between these two tenses. Even if the lesson is mainly designated for elementary students who wish to study or review English grammar and vocabulary, it would also help students who are at an advanced level and wish to brush up on English grammar.
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Mr. P. is a Canadian English Teacher/Coach from Toronto, Canada, who has been teaching English since 1997. He taught English to adults in Rome for 20 years. He is an Honorary Fellow in the English Language at UNITELMA La Sapienza University in Rome. In the past, he was also a Language Monitor at the University of Toronto. He has also taught English to many important politicians and celebrities in Italy. He is a certified English Teacher specializing in TEFL, TESL, TESOL (Arizona State University) & TOEFL. Marc's channel aims to make his lessons concise and effective for everyone. Subscribe for weekly updates, and please make comments and requests.
Hello everyone, this is Marc. How are you today? He had been studying English before he became
my student. In this lesson, I'll talk about the Past Perfect Continuous.
We use the Past Perfect Continuous to talk about an action that happened progressively
in the past before another action. So, we usually use it with the Past Simple. Let's look at my
introductory example. He had been studying English before he became my student. This sentence means
that the student knew some English because he had studied it before I taught him. So, the formula
for this sentence would be subject plus had plus been plus gerun, any gerun, okay, in this case
study, studying, and then the object of the sentence. We often use a clause starting with
something started in the past. So, like I said in the example, he had been studying English before
I taught him. He can also be confused with the Past Continuous but he shouldn't because the
Past Continuous emphasizes interrupted actions while the Past Perfect Continuous emphasizes
the duration of time before something else happened in the past. He was thirsty because
he was running so much and this means that at that moment it happened, okay, but if I said
he was thirsty because he had been running so much, this could mean that maybe he just finished
or he was still running, okay, but emphasizes the period of time he was running, okay.
Now, let's recap. We use the Past Perfect Continuous to express an action that happened
continuously in the past before another action. Usually, we use it with a Past Simple and the
formula for this would be the subject plus the auxiliary had plus been plus a gerun, okay.
Now, remember that if you want to make a question, the auxiliary goes first,
the subject, okay. If you want to make a sentence negative, just add not to the auxiliary and that is
to the verb or the auxiliary had, okay. Do not get confused with the Past Continuous. The Past
Continuous emphasizes interrupted actions while the Past Perfect Continuous emphasizes the duration
of time in the past before another action, okay. Now, I have a question for you. How long had you
been studying English before you started watching my mini lessons on YouTube? How long had you been
studying English before you started watching my mini lessons on YouTube? Leave your answer
under this video. If you have comments or suggestions, you may write them too, okay.
I hope you have a great day and I see you next time. Don't forget to share. Bye-bye.
