Past Perfect Progressive Tense in English Grammar

What is the past perfect progressive?

The past perfect progressive, also past perfect continuous, is the tense used to show how long an action was in progress up to a certain point in the past.

It is similar to the present perfect progressive tense but is used to express past actions.

We form past perfect progressive with had been + the present participle (ing-form) of the main verb.

Learn how and when to use in the past perfect progressive in English grammar with Lingolia, then test yourself in the interactive exercises.

Contents

Example

Last month, our boss made a big announcement.

He told us that sales had been declining steadily over the last year and the company was now bankrupt.

I had been expecting this news for a while, so I wasn’t surprised when it was announced.

But everyone else was shocked. Management had been hiding the poor sales figures from the other employees.

I wasn’t too upset that the company was closing. By that time, I had been working there for over five years and I was ready for a career change anyway.

When to use the past perfect progressive

Use the past perfect progressive to express:

  • how long an action lasted up to a certain point or second action in the past, usually expressed in simple past (signal words: how long, for, since, by)
Example:
I had been expecting this news for a while.
I had been working there for over five years when the news was announced.
when + simple past for the second action
  • an action that started and ended before a certain time in the past, but its result or effect continued beyond its completion
    Example:
    Sales had been declining steadily and the company was now bankrupt.
    action: falling sales; result: bankruptcy

Past perfect simple or past perfect progressive?

Sometimes, we can use the past perfect simple instead of the past perfect progressive, but this alters the focus of the sentence.

The former emphasises the completion of an action, whereas the latter focuses on its duration.

Example:
They had hidden the poor sales figures from the other employees. (past perfect simple)
emphasises that the action is now over
They had been hiding the poor sales figures from the other employees. (past perfect progressive)
emphasises the repeated nature of the action over its duration

Note

We do not use the past perfect progressive with stative verbs (e.g. be, believe, know, love, own, understand …).

We must use the past perfect simple with these verbs, even when expressing duration.

Example:
I had known for a while that I wanted a career change.
not: I had been knowing
Learn more about the difference between the past perfect simple and the past perfect progressive over on our

page comparing the different past tenses in English grammar.

Signal Words: English Past Perfect Progressive

Signal words can help us choose which tense to use. The signal words for the past perfect progressive are:

  • how long, for, since
  • the whole day, all day
  • by

The signal words for the past perfect progressive are the same as those for the present perfect progressive. The difference is that the signal words for the past perfect progressive refer to the past, not the present.

Past perfect progressive in spoken English

We don’t use the past perfect progressive very often in spoken English – it is much more common in written texts.

Often, native English speakers will rephrase a sentence slightly in order to use simpler tenses.

Example:
I had been expecting this news for a while so I wasn’t surprised. (past perfect progressive)
I was expecting this news, so I wasn’t surprised. (past progressive)

if we omit the duration of an action, we can replace the past perfect progressive with the past progressive

How to conjugate the past perfect progressive in English

To conjugate the past perfect progressive tense in English grammar, we need the auxiliary verbs have and been by the present participle (-ing-form) of the main verb: had been + ing-form.

The table below shows how to conjugate the past perfect progressive in affirmative, negative and interrogative sentences:

Affirmative Negative Question
I had been speaking I had not been speaking Had I been speaking?

Present Participle – Spelling Rules

The present participle is generally formed by adding -ing to the base form of a verb. However, there are a few exceptions to this rule:

  • An -e at the end of the word is removed, but -ee, -oe and -ye remain unchanged.
    Example:
    come – coming
    but: agree - agreeing
  • The final consonant is doubled in words that have a short stressed vowel before the final consonant. However, -w, -x and -y are not doubled.
    Example:
    sit – sitting
    but: mix – mixing
  • An -l as a final consonant after a vowel is always doubled in British English but not in American English.
    Example:
    travel – travelling (British)
    traveling (American)
  • An -ie at the end of the word is replaced with a -y
    Example:
    lie – lying

Contractions

Contractions are a combination of certain pronouns, verbs and the word not.

The table below shows the contracted forms for the past perfect progressive tense:

Long Form Contraction Example
had …’d they’d
had not* hadn’t I hadn’t

*Negated contractions

We can also use the contraction …’d not in negative sentences, although it is less common than hadn’t.

Example:
They’d not been expecting the news. → They hadn’t been expecting the news.

Unlike hadn’t, the contraction …’d (not) can only follow a pronoun and not a noun.

Example:
The employees’d not been expecting the news. → They’d not been expecting the news.