Past Perfect & Past Perfect Continous

We use the past perfect simple to talk about what happened before a point in the past. It looks back from a point in the past to further in the past.

• I hadn't known the bad news when I spoke to him.
• I checked with the supplier and they still hadn't received the contract.
• She had already told him before I got a chance to give him my version.
• The company has started the year well but was badly hit by the postal strike.

The past perfect simple is often used when we report what people had said/thought/believed.

• He told me they had already paid the bill.
• He said he believed that John had moved to Italy.
• I thought we had already decided on a name for this product.

 
 [PPC]

We use the past perfect continuous to look back at a situation in progress.

• It was a good time to invest. Inflation had been falling for several months.
• Before I changed jobs, I had been working on a plan to reduce production costs.
• We had been thinking about buying a new house but then we decided to stay here.

We use it to say what had been happening before something else happened.

• It had been snowing for a while before we left.
• We had been playing tennis for only a few minutes when it started raining.
• He was out of breath when he arrived because he had been running.

We use it when reporting things said in the past.

• She said she had been trying to call me all day.
• They said they had been shopping.
• I told you I had been looking for some new clothes.

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