Pluperfect progressive tense
Encyclopedia
The pluperfect progressive (or past perfect continuous) is a combination of perfective and progressive aspects and past tense
in some Indo-European languages, showing an event that started in the past and continued at least until another time in the past. This grammatical form may be contrasted with the present perfect progressive: the present perfect progressive indicates that the time frame of the event extends at least until the present time (but does not indicate whether it extends beyond the present), whereas the pluperfect progressive indicates that the time frame of the event extended at least until some past time (but does not indicate whether it extended after that past time).
An example of may be observed in the sentence, 'The boys had been discoursing for an hour before Edward arrived.' In this example, the event which began prior to a past event is the discourse between the boys, whereas the subsequent event in the past is the arrival of Edward. The clause, 'the boys had been discoursing' is in the pluperfect progressive.
The past perfect continuous is formed with had + been + present participle of a verb.
Past tense
The past tense is a grammatical tense that places an action or situation in the past of the current moment , or prior to some specified time that may be in the speaker's past, present, or future...
in some Indo-European languages, showing an event that started in the past and continued at least until another time in the past. This grammatical form may be contrasted with the present perfect progressive: the present perfect progressive indicates that the time frame of the event extends at least until the present time (but does not indicate whether it extends beyond the present), whereas the pluperfect progressive indicates that the time frame of the event extended at least until some past time (but does not indicate whether it extended after that past time).
An example of may be observed in the sentence, 'The boys had been discoursing for an hour before Edward arrived.' In this example, the event which began prior to a past event is the discourse between the boys, whereas the subsequent event in the past is the arrival of Edward. The clause, 'the boys had been discoursing' is in the pluperfect progressive.
The past perfect continuous is formed with had + been + present participle of a verb.
Past Continuous vs. Past Perfect Continuous in English
If a phrase of the form, for example, 'for five minutes', 'for two weeks' or 'since Friday' is included, the past perfect continuous must be used rather than the past continuous, because that phrase focuses on the duration of the prior event. On the other hand, in the absence of such a phrase the choice between the two verbal formulations depends on whether or not the speaker wishes to emphasize the duration. For example:- Jonathan was fatigued because he was working so diligently.
- (This sentence emphasizes that Jonathan was fatigued because he was working at that exact moment)
- Jonathan was fatigued because he had been working so diligently.
- (This sentence emphasizes that he was fatigued because he had been working over a period of time. It is possible that Jonathan was still working at that moment or that he had just finished.)