2. It had been raining for days (past perfect continuous)

Actividad de lectura

Read this text about Paco and answer these questions :

What two things are making Paco lose patience?

Now that he had been there a few days in the Big Apple, Paco was starting to feel at home.However, there was one thing he couldn't get used to- the weather! It had been raining for days now and everywhere was soaked and there were puddles on the pavements. Paco hadn't been expecting such bad weather on his visit so he felt very frustrated that he couldn't do everything he wanted because of the bad weather. Who wants to go to Central park when it is pouring down?

Another thing that annoyed Paco is that he hadn't been able to phone his family in Spain. He had been trying and trying but no luck. In fact he had phoned them about twenty times but he couldn't get through.

This morning however, things started to go right. When he looked out it had stopped raining. There was water everywhere but no one was using an umbrella. At that moment the phone rang- it was his sister! She asked him what he had been doing recently. It was wonderful to hear from her after all this time. next time they'll use skype.

hombre en centralpark en lluvia

Imagen de Ewen Roberts en Flickr. Licencia CC

Importante

The past perfect continuous isn't very common but you need to know how to use it anyway. Look at these examples to see how it is formed:

It had been raining for days now and everywhere was soaked

Paco hadn't been expecting such bad weather on his visit

He had been trying and trying

She asked him what he had been doing recently.  ("What have you been doing recently?")

ppc

We use     HAD/HADN'T +BEEN + _________ING

We use past perfect continuous to:

i) talk about a continuous activity occurring up to a point in the past.

ii) to emphasise an activity that has a result in the past

ii) in reported speech to report past continuous and present perfect continuous

Comprueba lo aprendido

Practice

Complete the sentences with the verbs in past perfect continuous.

  1. When the bus arrived, they for 1 hour. (wait)
  2. They for hours when John woke them up. (sleep)
  3. It for hours- everything was white. (snow)
  4. I looked outside and saw that the ground was wet- it . (rain)
  5. We next door to Mary for 3 months before we finally met her.(live)
  6. I long when Joe arrived. (not wait)
  7. He her for weeks before he finally asked her out.(watch)

Habilitar JavaScript