Past Perfect Continuous

Lesson 2: Past Perfect Continuous.

1. Overview
Focus on the duration of an ongoing past action that happened before another action in the past.

2. Structure
[Subject] + [had been] + [verb + -ing]
- I had been coding for six hours when my eyes started to hurt.
- They had been working on the project for months before it finally launched.

3. Past Perfect Simple vs. Continuous
- Simple emphasizes the completed result (e.g., I had written three modules).
- Continuous emphasizes the duration or process (e.g., I had been writing code all night).

4. Practice Exercise
Fill in the blanks with the Past Perfect Continuous form:
1. She _____ (study) English for two years before she moved to an advanced level.
2. We _____ (test) the application all morning when the bug appeared.